Cowpen and Blyth families need to take up Social Tariff Broadband to help them through this difficult time say’s Blyth Town Mayor?

 

The current mayor of the Town of Blyth and County Councillor for Cowpen Ward, Councillor Margaret Richardson, is very concerned that local residents aren't taking up social tariff broadband when recent data shows that the area of Cowpen and Cowpen/Kitty Brewster sits locked into the top 10% of most deprived wards nationally with well less than average income levels in most households in fact some of the lowest household incomes in the Country.

Councillor Richardson told us at Northumberland News that: “The take up of social tariff broadband is extremely low, sitting just above 1% of the almost ten million people eligible for cheaper broadband have taken up the offer.”

“Families in Cowpen who are on Universal Credit or a number of other benefits such as Income-related Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Personal Independent Payment (PIP), Housing Benefit, and Pension Credit can benefit from the scheme with some companies offering the service for other additional claimable benefits”

Councillor Richardson also pointed us towards a statement recently released by the The Good Things Foundation, which campaigns on behalf of the digitally excluded, described data poverty as an issue that has "grown significantly over the past two years during the pandemic".

It warned increases to the cost of living "will only put further pressure on those on the lowest incomes, who are already having to make stark choices between having the internet connection they need and heating their house or feeding their family".

 “As the Mayor for the Town of Blyth and a Cowpen Ward Councillor I know how people struggle with their decision making of how to spend the low incomes they have to live on, these lower cost broadband schemes will help close the gap between the haves and the have nots and will help families who always want their children to do better at school provide the information they need to learn and keep up with their compatriots.”

 

News Ed: the links below may help:

https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/guides/broadband-deals-for-low-income-families/?utm_source=braze-marketing&utm_campaign=insight&utm_content=211215-Generic%C2%A0-&utm_term=u-email-marketing-newsletter-active-211214&utm_medium=email&ref=email~marketing~insight~211215-Generic%C2%A0&customer_id=21792e28-d4bc-4673-9447-c806012e8251&utm_adgid=61b9e802c6e3c1b55aabc33ac833a0fb

 

Councillor Liz Simpson reminds us all that Council Policy has run out at the most difficult time for children since the 1950's

 

Councillor Liz Simpson who represents Newbiggin Central and East ward which is home to the largest number of children and families living in deprivation in the whole of Northumberland has reminded the Council that it's time to look at two major time expired policies which drive the Council's view of how to help children achieve and guide their needs going forward.

The Council's policy for early years which ran out in 2021 has had an update applied for the youngest people in society, it is ambitious and attempts to identify the individual needs of children. Its children's plan, covering all age groups, runs out this year. The numbers of children and families requiring to use the services covered by the policies have been very constant and covering consistent numbers for many years.

The recent social and economic changes facing families will scope even more children into categories covered by the policies. Numbers are expected to grow rapidly this year and sit at a much higher level in forthcoming years until wages and benefits catch up with the soaring rate of inflation.

Councillor Simpson said:"Due to the Government's cost of living crisis and the credit crunch we need to think hard and avoid a light touch update to policies that protect children and ensure we grown-ups elected as Councillors design essential change governance that will supply and increase the help to young people in need"

Experienced Councillors from the largest opposition group on the Council, Northumberland Labour, have offered their services to review Council policies but video evidence from the last full Council showed that the Conservative administration have no interest in sharing information and rejected the offer.

Councillor Simpson is rightly concerned that only Councillors from wealthier wards will contribute to the formation of the new policies and Labour will only be involved in the scrutiny of these documents, a very weak position to be in when policies are being designed. 

She also told us " these policies must be altered, possibly redesigned and stiffened to suit the changing needs of children and families at a time when the Council has lost its leading officer from Children's Services, Mrs McAvoy, to another local authority and the Conservative administration have broken into three infighting groups leaving me with no confidence that the correct improvements to help children through this disastrous period will be applied and we will end up with a great opportunity missed for both the Council and those we serve."

 

Living or simply surviving? Labour Councillor Lynne Grimshaw extremely concerned about the pensions catastrophe!

Bothal Ward in Ashington is very similar to many areas across the North-East of England suffering from a post industrial or mining activity past. 

People strive to keep their homes in order and the public face they purport is one of neatness and love for the places where many were born, worked and lived most of their lives. Its often been said that like homing pigeons those from the North-East who have left for work often come back to their nest and family when they retire.

The picture painted with the words above don't illustrate the reality of life behind the heavy curtains keeping the winter chills from invading bedroom and living spaces as the problems older people face through Government policy is about to get worse due to mismanagement and austerity measures doled out by the bucketful onto those who aren't able to stop nature and have got older.

The Government, hellbent over the last 11yrs on punishing those who rely on the State to live have now decided that it's easy to form a two tier society led by ignoring the plight of the elderley as they don't vote in high enough numbers to affect the spin put out by Tories and therefore don't really matter.

During 2021 the Tories stopped the Triple Lock on state pensions designed to keep problems of inflation from the doorsteps of Europe's lowest paid pensioners and 'offered' in the words of the Chancellor an increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the relevant reference period (the year to September 2021 to be paid for the financial year 2022-2023) and offer that always sits behind both time and reality.

This means the basic State Pension will increase to £141.85 per week and the full rate of new State Pension will increase to £185.15. 

Councillor Lynne Grimshaw the Labour Party Town and County Councillor for Bothal Ward in Ashington is deeply concerned for the residents in the Ward and told us " What a mess this Government has forced onto pensioners, with inflation running up towards 11% they open their sweaty palms and give out three and a half percent. They have caused a deep living standards division between older and younger pensioners but only publish the top line figure for new pensioners and rarely engage with the press about the basic pensioners who currently outnumber full higher rate pensioners by 81%." 

" Its dreadful that if you were a man born before 6April 1951 or a woman born before 6 April 1953 you suffer a differential of £43:30 per week in comparison with your contemporaries yet you live in the same society with the same costs and the same rate of inflation but this Government ignores your plight gives you an increase well under the level of inflation they have caused through their mismanagement of the economy and have no plan to close the gap other than to starve you out and on top of that keep new pensioners nailed in well below what the same Government class as the 'living wage'"

"I'm extremely concerned that in order to put on their accepted lovely public face, elderly residents in Bothal will suffer and put pride before food and heating, unfortunately it's built into their DNA. I will be urging relatives to keep an eye on the elderly and seek help from wider society and not be too proud to accept help from charities such as Age Concern and foodbanks and check if yourvrelative is entitled to benefits such as pension credits".

New place for Old King Coal as energy crisis wrecks people's lives?.

 

The Resolution Foundation think tank is forecasting an 8.3% rise in the cost of living by next month, April 2022 with the worst squeeze on family incomes since the 1930's and the Government's energy-gate myopia is to blame.

The massive rise in inflation is not simply caused by war in Europe or through the national attempts by Government to go for business growth as we crawl out of the pandemic, the root cause is the Conservative led decade of austerity in order that 'friends' of the Government could pile away £millions or even billions from the British economy and be given passports and peerages for returning a minute amount back in either tax from the cash they missed from their offshore activities or donations to the Conservative party.

Having said that, the Government this week will be unveiling a new energy policy that does not include the anti-tree huggers shale gas extraction. An energy policy that has been ten years in the making yet it will be rushed through as a non answer to the problems ordinary people face each and every day, tge high cost of everything. 

This Government's wish to centralise all of the UK's energy use on electricity will see a growth in atomic power stations which take decades to bring online and the extraction of the last gas from the North Sea. 

Its not expected that the speeding up of the promised offshore wind will be sponsored by Government and they will not be including one easy fix and one research and development opportunity, that of research into the hydrogen cell,  to power transport and heat homes in future but the quick fix of taking the opportunity to extract petroleum from both coal and sugar beet both of which took place during the second world war is to be missed out in the race to make even more mates richer through the complete reliance on an unbelievably creaky, now less than national grid, to run everything.

Mismanagement, reliance on commercial market forces and short term greed has got the UK into the position it is in, an offshore poor relation to the world's largest marketplace. Take this opportunity to ensure we are self-reliant on energy in the future and then instead of importing what we need
we can be major exporters of what everyone wants, energy on tap, carbon derived or not.

Outside London £9bn is needed to support bus services, Blundering Boris offers £1.4bn and praises leveling up. Local Councillors express concern.

 

The accusation of the Government double counting grant cash to support bus travel from regional Mayor's and Council leaders across England has brought out how little the current insular Conservative Government and its treasury understands the needs of its population and how many families are now reliant on bus services as transport deprivation widens.

Last year, in a hail of publicity, the Prime Minister published a report on the way forward for the bus transport arm of public transport entitled 'Bus Back Better'. Within it he describes how his faltering and dithering levelling up agenda would run out of the dark and be bathed with glorious sunshine, returning bus services to the level enjoyed prior to 2010 and his former leaders (David Cameron's) push to get the nations workers and pensioners to pay for a world collapse in banking confidence through a programme of intense austerity.

The media praise for 'Austerity' was such a resounding success that the nation has re-elected Conservative Government's on 3 occasions since with the biggest losers being the LibDems who  propped up the Conservatives 'Austerity 1' campaign and were deserted by the public for their huge failure to deliver on their promises.

The current Conservatives are now as always completely reliant on austerity as a way forward as the pandemic losses to business investors and stockbrokers has to be paid back by a nation beginning to see this Government's levelling up agenda for what it is, a replacement for a poorly veiled new-austerity programme. The poverty it is causing those who have already paid back bankers for the last 12 years is beginning to become real, bus cuts being the biggest tangible example that's hitting home following another Jimmy Saville 'fix it' campaign from the nation's Prime Minister.

Local Labour Councillors in Northumberland are extremely concerned regarding cuts to bus services with Lynemouths Liz Dunn and Blyth's Eileen Cartie worried for families they represent.

Councillor Eileen Cartie said: "with fuel sticking at around £7 per gallon and the Government still raking in massive profits from fuel tax even in areas like Blyth where very few services have received subsidies in recent years, bus companies are feeling the pinch and I can't understand why the Leader of Government tells us one thing about investments into regional bus transport and his treasury is allowed to burn his promises in front of his eyes. Families are reliant on buses in this area yet without help from the Government they will become too expensive to use and that will only lead to one end, services being cut."

"In Blyth, bus companies will shortly be invited to provide transport around the town to link up with the reopening rail line as part of an integrated transport system. They will certainly need help to cover off the level of investment needed and with the Treasury fiddling with the levelling up plans where will that investment come from?".

Councillor Liz Dunn from Lynemouth said: "Representing a rural ward the concerns of the residents locally are centred around the potential loss of bus services. Lynemouth ward is home to the second highest number of families in transport deprivation in the County and the reliance on buses is immeasurable in terms of people being socially excluded from wider society in all age groups but youths and the elderly need access to bus services most of all as our villages can't supply all their needs." 

"With poverty and deprivation growing at such a rapid rate and Councils still having to slash budgets to appease a Government hell bent on increasing profits for investors and banks, families in the villages I represent will be financially excluded from social interaction with their neighbours if fare costs don't receive some support this year and I wholeheartedly support our North of Tyne combined authority Mayor, Jamie Driscol in his endeavours to bring these dreadful cuts into the open for all to see."

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-back-better

Age UK: Government has 'ripped the heart out of social and economic reform' and open attacks on pensioners and families by Conservatives. Local Councillors agree.

 

The recent changes to the care cap within the Social Care Bill, shows how influenced the Conservatives in power at Westminster are by the 20% of wealthy families who can afford to bear the costs of the £86,000 care cap set by the Government whilst ignoring the remaining 80% who can't.

In a move that observers believe has been made to support the estate growth of property rental magnates and contributors to the Conservative party, waiting in the wings to scoop up properties cheaply being forced onto the open market to cover the cap charges, destroying the plans of families for decades.

Recent research carried out by charity Age UK has found that fewer than one in five  pensioners will see any benefit from the Government's £86,000 cap on social care bills, with those with the most assets set to benefit the most. 

Charity director Caroline Abrahams said a proposed change to the cap "will take it beyond the reach of older people with low or modes amounts of income and wealth", while leaving "the situation of the better off more or less intact". 

The Government has proposed a change to the cap that will exclude local authority payments from the cap calculation, which Age UK says will disproportionately impact poorer pensioners. "l'm struggling to remember the last time a government of any complexion trumpeted a social and economic reform and then ripped the heart out of it less than two months later", Ms Abrahams added.

Local Councillors from two of Northumberland County Council's most deprived wards suffering from absentee private landlords high rent regimes in Croft and Cowpen, Blyth, Northumberland, Kath Nisbet and Margaret Richardson completely agree with the sentiments reported from Age UK.

Councillor Nisbet said "I represent Croft ward which has some of the lowest property values in the UK which has seen a huge expansion in  the growth of homes remotely managed by absentee landlords and this opportunity from the Conservatives to grow their estates whilst local families lose their inheritance opportunities is a disgraceful act from a Government only interested in their own class"

Councillor Richardson who represents Cowpen ward, the most deprived ward in the huge County of Northumberland told us "this announcement of a care cap set at £86,000 and care support from Council's being discounted from the count will suck the lifeblood from families who have struggled since the late 1980's."

 "It takes two wages coming in to pay the bills for families in Cowpen but if the care cap is set so high it places families in an unenviable position in having to choose, either to drop to one worker and struggle to pay the families way in life whilst the other becomes a carer or for many families, have to sell the roof over their heads as the wider sharing of a family home is quite common it just shows how heartless Conservatives have become".

Local Labour Councillor seriously concerned about projected increase in Deprivation and Destitution

 

Councillor Liz Simpson, deputy leader of the opposition on Northumberland County Council has expressed serious concerns regarding a report from The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) think tank.

The think tank  has warned the Government and local Government that the combination of inflation, which is set to reach 7% in the spring, and the upcoming rise in National Insurance Contributions, could lead to a 30% increasein destitution, with particularly severe effects on some parts of the country. 

Councillor Simpson who represents the fabulous and historic seaside town of Newbiggin by the Sea which is home to the largest number of children and young adults living in poverty and deprivation in the whole massive County of Northumberland said "with the bony arm of poverty and deprivation already reaching over 30% of children living in Newbiggin without this dismal prediction from NIESR and parents now totally reliant on the ever reducing services industry as residents cut back and spend on needy items and not services. I'm really concerned that another 30% increase in avoidable deprivation will lead many families towards destitution."

 "Northumberland County Council has ignored the underlying problems facing Newbiggin families for the last five years and their current budget is geared towards headline spend and not research and development into how the County can pull out of this gloom and increase the lot in areas of deprivation." 

NIESR has called for the National Insurance increase to be delayed, and for the creation of a winter grant scheme, administered by local authorities and funded by £3bn in Government funding, to help poorer households pay for food and bills.

 "I fully agree with the advice from the NIESR and urge Government to halt the rise in national insurance and the creation of a special grant scheme for Council's to help families get back onto an even keel and reduce the need for food banks and increase the food on families tables, which would hopefully keep local shops open. I'm also worried that backing from the County Council to support this
idea may not be glamorous enough for the current administration to grasp."