Labour Pressure gets Mayor to rethink

The background to the issue is

The Government introduced a council tax benefit cut of 20% on those receiving 100% council tax benefit.

This would have meant around £200 a year hit on around 8000 claimants.

The Labour Group proposed another way to gain finance without cuts or increasing council tax.

The now agreed proposal would mean only a 7% cut in benefit, which is around £70 a year per claimant.

In addition a new Discretionary Housing Payment Scheme with approx. £880,000 of funding which will help individual cases of financial hardship.

An all-party task group to be formed to investigate the potential of using current legislation to help residents who are in need of help as a consequence of the austerity measures and Welfare reform impacts.

Best Wishes

Jim Allan

Leader of the Labour Group

Labour Councillor for Camperdown Ward, North Tyneside Council

Tel 07909234752

Press Release

Labour Pressure gets Mayor to rethink

The Labour Group have shown the Mayor and her Cabinet that there are other ways

to help our most vulnerable in North Tyneside - Jim Allan

The Labour group which has 43 representatives on the council have managed to

convince the Mayor that there are other ways that can be introduced to help those

suffering as a consequence of benefit reforms. Labour asked the Cabinet to go back

and take the potential impact of the welfare reforms on our most vulnerable people of

working age, and consider other options before coming back to Council for a final

decision.

The Cabinet received a further report from Officers that offers another option which

greatly reduces the financial burden of the Coalition Government’s welfare reforms

and also creates a new fund “Discretionary Housing Payments” which will help with

individual cases of hardship as a consequence of welfare reform

Deputy Labour group leader Norma Redfearn said

‘We’re were concerned that the Elected Mayor and her Cabinet did not have any

proposals to put to council and were leaving it to the rest of council to agree the

management of the benefit changes. We voiced our concerns that the Mayor had not

demonstrated clear leadership on a matter that was being introduced by the

Coalition Government and was leaving it to other councillors to do the job for her. It

was the view of our Group that there were clearly a number of options that were

available and could be brought forward as a softer option to minimise the impact of

the benefit cuts.

As a result of the representations made by Labour Councillors, at a reconvened

meeting of the council last night the council agreed to the new Option4 which clearly

shows that the Labour Group were right in making their case to do everything that

was possible to reduce the burden of these cuts.

For further info

Jim Allan

Tel 07909234752

The attached press release is about the council denying the opportunity for over two thirds of the council to discuss the Housing Budget, which will be decided by 7 people on the cabinet today. This is a result of the ruling made by officers that we have been handling the process wrong for the last 11 years. It has only come to light in view of the legal research undertaken by officers after the two thirds decision went against the Mayor and her cabinet last March. It is a fundamental change that has not even been presented to Cabinet let alone the rest of the Councillors but is instigated by the council’s legal team. We have learnt to day that we will not be allowed to discuss the Council’s housing capital plan and again that will be decided along with the HRA tomorrow. As a Labour group we have challenged how many other councils in the country have adopted the same approach (executive led councils) and if the reason why it has happened is because we have not been following the legislation and so why have other councils not done the same as NTC, why have our officers not alerted other authorities. We have also asked what CIPFA got to say about this, as well as having met with external auditors last night

Press Release

Labour cry foul over new moves to exclude members

‘Plans to stop members raising concerns about unfair rent rise is the last straw’ – Jim Allan

A storm has broken out in Tyne and Wear’s only Tory council after Labour councillors voiced their concerns over new legal advice removing their opportunity to discuss the council’s Housing Budget and a predicted 5.7% rent rise.

Labour councillors have raised the matter with the council’s external auditor after a series of rulings from the council’s 22 strong legal team which have overturned previous legal opinion which had been followed for 11 years.

The Labour group which has 45 representatives on the council have claimed the council has excluded them from a string of key decisions including the decision to enter into a 10 year, £260m outsourcing contract and removed the existing rule which previously meant that an elected mayor needed to secure a third of council votes to pass their budget.

Now a ruling by the council’s legal team has meant Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians will not be able to even discuss the Housing Budget which is expected to set an inflation busting rise for council rents and has prompted calls to the Monitoring Officer to ‘think again’ .

Labour group leader Jim Allan said

‘We’re concerned that the Council is losing sight of the role of the elected member. There are too many occasions when the Mayor and her senior officers are seeking to make decisions without recourse to the rest of the council. Labour has 45 councillors on this council but we couldn’t stop or amend the Mayor’s last budget which has effectively doubled the council debt. The Mayor isn’t listening and the Council itself is helping her ignore warnings over policy blunders like her brown bin tax. We need to explore whether the council is acting in a lawful manner when excluding councillors because it’s certainly stopping us carrying out an effective role of representing our constituents’.

TORY MAYOR CLIMBS DOWN OVER NEW BROWN BIN TAX

FOR RELEASE FROM 12:01am 15 JANUARY

TORY MAYOR CLIMBS DOWN OVER NEW BROWN BIN TAX

Last night in North Tyneside, the Council’sTory cabinet performed a dramatic u-turn over plans to introduce a brown bin tax to pay for the collection of garden waste from homes across the borough.

Last autumn, North Tyneside residents received letters from the Council demanding £20 for every garden refuse bin for households to continue having their garden waste collected from March 2013. The scheme has already cost the Council over £25,000 in set-up costs and will now cost £47,000 to administer refunds to residents who have already paid the charge.

Councillor Norma Redfearn, Deputy Leader of the Labour Group and Labour’s candidate for elected Mayor in 2013, led a campaign against the new charge which culminated in a debate over a Labour motion to Council in the autumn. North Tyneside Labour Group asked Tory Mayor Linda Arkley to go away and think again about introducing the new charge. Norma Redfearn had pledged to scrap the charge if she was successful in the mayoral election in May.

Last night, Councillor Redfearn said, “Perhaps the Tory Mayor is, rather belatedly, trying to do something about her growing Council debt mountain but a stealth tax on garden rubbish was never a good way to do that. The main thing, however, is that, at last, sense has prevailed over this issue which should not have been mooted in the first place. No doubt residents will draw their own conclusions about what this has cost the Council and the inconvenience it has caused.”

ENDS

NOTES FOR EDITORS ON NEXT PAGE North Tyneside Labour Group

2

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The costs quoted in this release are taken from the Cabinet meeting papers available on the North Tyneside Council website (see link).

http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/browse-display.shtml?p_ID=541245&p_subjectCategory=41

2. The covering email for this release also attaches a photograph. The residents pictured in the photograph with Norma are Mr and Mrs Thompson of Cliftonville Gardens, Whitley Bay. They registered their objection to the introduction of the brown bin tax with their local Labour councillor and Norma Redfearn and have signed an appropriate release form for use of this photograph.

3. Whilst North Tyneside Council has a Tory Mayor elected in 2009, the political composition of the Council is now: Labour 43; Conservative 12; LibDem 5. (In 2009 it was: Labour 21; Conservative 31; LibDem 8.)

4. Councillor Norma Redfearn is the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of North Tyneside in the 2013 election. You can follow Norma’s campaign on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/normaformayor .

CONTACT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information on this press release please contact:

Councillor Norma Redfearn

Mobile Telephone: 07759 699 707

eMail: norma4mayor@gmail.com

or

Tony Stephenson

North Tyneside Labour Group Media Unit

Mobile telephone: 07759 660 121

eMail: Labour.NTyneside@yahoo.com

Promoted by North Tyneside Labour, all at 7 Palmersville, Newcastle NE12 9HN

FOOD BANKS IN Newcastle and North Tyneside

Food for thought

food bank provision in

Newcastle

Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service

November 2012

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 2 of 9

Thanks

This report seeks to map the development and provision of food banks in Newcastle.

Nationally food banks are a fast rising phenomenon. They are an indicator too of the

difficulties families and individuals are facing as a consequence of the recession and

falling incomes.

Newcastle CVS would like to thank all those who took the time to speak to us and

who provided us with the information included in this report.

Copyright: Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service, 2012

Published by Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service, 2012

Newcastle CVS, MEA House, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8XS

Registered charity 1125877 and company limited by guarantee 6681475

Tel 0191 232 7445 www.cvsnewcastle.org.uk twitter@newcastlecvs

Email ncvs@cvsnewcastle.org.uk Fax 0191 230 5640

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 3 of 9

Introduction

This report gives basic information about food banks in Newcastle upon Tyne and

their services. It goes on to draw attention to some issues and areas for

consideration which have arisen during the research.

The main objective was to map food banks across Newcastle. This involved

documenting food bank contact details, opening times and any other available

information such as the areas they cover.

However, food banks are difficult to locate. There is anecdotal evidence for very

small food bank type provision in very local communities which may even be a

couple of streets. Again there is anecdotal evidence for food bank provision based

around regular religious activities, not just Christian.

There are other issues, for example some agencies hand out vouchers for clients to

hand-in to shops so while they are not food banks as such their effect is very similar.

Context

These are difficult times. The coalition government is pursuing a number of austerity

policies aimed at reducing the amount of government borrowing. The consequences

of these policies include new and increasing restrictions on benefits, reduced

government investment in jobs and a rapidly shrinking public sector.

In addition to these cuts the government is making major changes to the benefit

system and to tax credit entitlements. These changes affect not only those without

work but a large number of people in low paid work.

The corresponding move to more part-time working may partly alleviate the distress

caused by these changes but the problem of low pay and no pay remains.

What do we mean by a ‘food bank’?

A food bank hands out parcels of food to those that need it with no charge to the

recipient. In theory they don’t serve hot food and they don’t offer free gifts. In fact

food banks are often part of a hot food operation and often they will hand out food to

whoever asks for help.

Food banks operate in the following way:

Individuals, businesses and organisations donate food to a food bank.

Food banks collect at supermarkets where shoppers are given a list of items and

asked to buy one or two for local people in need.

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 4 of 9

The collected food is sorted and stored. The food bank staff and volunteers sort the

food by date and pack it into parcels ready to be given out.

People visit the food bank and receive the parcels. Some food banks have no or few

restrictions on who can receive their parcels. Others ask for ID and evidence of need.

Sometimes care professionals such as doctors, health visitors, social workers, and

the Citizens Advice Bureau refer people to food banks.

At the food bank people receive their food parcel and often hot food and drink. Staff

and volunteers may be available to talk with them and signpost them to agencies

which can address longer-term problems.

Some agencies, such as the Trussell Trust, operate a voucher system. Here people

take their voucher to a food bank and redeem it for a set amount of food.

Some food banks run a delivery service to take food parcels to clients who cannot

get to the food bank e.g. because they are unwell, or because they live away from

public transport.

Food banks in the UK

Food banks are a fast growing phenomenon in the UK. The Trussell Trust has more

than 200 food banks on its list and reports that it opened two food banks a week in

the last year (to September 2012). It plans to go on opening new food banks to meet

an increasing need.

Food banks provide support for people in need and an increase in number can only

indicate an increase in need. There are a number of reasons for this, from the difficult

economic situation and changes to benefit rules to increased awareness that such

services exist. With no sign of immediate improvement, the food bank or similar

provision is set to become a familiar sight in local communities.

Where are Newcastle’s food banks?

This research has found food banks to be clustered in the east and west of the city

centre. They tend not to be positioned in residential areas or near the outskirts of

Newcastle. This is partly because many are based at churches.

The food banks users travel to them rather than have a door step service. This can

create problems – the food parcels tend to be rather heavy and for obvious reasons

the food bank users do not usually have their own transport.

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 5 of 9

Food Bank providers

The research identified the following dedicated food banks in Newcastle.

• Children’s Society, Brunswick Methodist Church

• Missionaries of Charity, Durham Street

• Newcastle East Food Bank, Elim Pentecostal Church, Heaton Road

• Newcastle YMCA

• St Andrew’s Church, Newgate Street

• St Joseph’s Asylum Project, Armstrong Road

• Storehouse, Tyneside Vineyard, City Road

• Walking With, Wallsend1

Providers

Perhaps surprisingly Newcastle’s food banks tend to be supplied not by local

donations but by two national providers – The Trussell Trust and FareShare.

The Trussell Trust provides the largest number of food banks across the UK. It

operates the Newcastle East Food Bank and is looking to open a Newcastle West

Food Bank early in 2013.

FareShare collects food that is near to its sell-by date from retailers, and sells it onto

food banks. FareShare is operated in the North East by The Cyrenians and supplies

food for several food banks in Newcastle. The research found that FareShare

services are praised by the food banks they sell to. Nevertheless at least one

organisation has had to stop using their services because they no longer have the

money to pay for them.

The Cyrenians are looking to expand FareShare. In October 2012 they won £15,000

from Santander bank’s Social Enterprise Development Awards to hire new staff and

help set up a scheme in Tees Valley.

Both the Trussell Trust and FareShare are Christian organisations supplying food

banks that often operate from Christian churches.

Outside of the Trussell Trust and FareShare, food banks operate their own

collections e.g. asking supermarkets if they can approach their customers to buy

something extra for the food bank. The food bank staff approach customers entering

the store and wait behind the checkout to collect the donation once the customer has

paid.

Alongside this there are donations from concerned members of the public. Often

these donations go beyond food to include clothing, baby equipment, and even

furniture. The churches are active on this area too using their network to informally

assist donors and focus donations.

1 Though this provider is in North Tyneside, they are used by Newcastle residents.

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 6 of 9

In addition Storehouse is looking to start a food bank network in Newcastle to share

experiences and resources such as a van.

It is reported that local authorities are investing in charity-run food banks to cope with

a demand for help from families in crisis2. However, the research found no evidence

of financial or strategic involvement from the public sector in Newcastle, just referrals

from the Housing Advice Centre (HAC).

Users

Food bank users come from across the city including affluent areas such as

Gosforth. It is not just people on benefits using food banks; the food banks report

increasing numbers of working people on low incomes accessing their services. The

presence of people from affluent areas and of people in-work can be masked by

presenting aggregated statistics.

The food banks report an increase in demand at the start of the summer holidays.

This may be due to children who normally receive free school meals during term time

being at home.

Given the reported scale of the problem (e.g. BBC news, 16 October 2012) the

researcher was surprised not to find even more food banks in Newcastle. However,

further research indicates that food needs in Newcastle are being met in other ways

e.g. through religious organisations as part of their religious activities. The researcher

has found evidence for existing food banks gearing up to meet additional demand

and for new ones about to begin operations.

Other no cost facilities

In addition to food banks there are a number of other facilities in Newcastle providing

food for no cost.

• Blandford Square – Hot drinks and sandwiches, Saturdays

• Peoples Kitchen, The Alison Centre - Hot meals and sandwiches and hot

drinks: 4 sessions at Alison Centre plus 4 street outreach sessions

• Summerhill Square, West Road - Hot meals and sandwiches, Sundays

• The Cyrenians, Ron Eager House – Food and hot drinks: 5 projects in

Newcastle, 1 in Gateshead

• Walter’s Kitchen - Hot dogs, soup and pasta, St Andrew’s Church (Thursday)

and Blandford Square (Sunday)

• West End Refugee Service – Cash hand outs for food

• Edible Elswick, Elswick Community Garden – Free food sessions run by West

End Women and Girls

2 Patrick Butler, The Guardian, 21 August 2012.

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 7 of 9

Findings

There has been an increase in the number of families seeking help from food banks

in Newcastle. This is clear from the presence of new and recently opened food banks

across the city and the demand for their services.

The food banks report that they can hand out all that they can bring in. This indicates

that the need for free food in Newcastle is widespread and increasing though for now

at least it is not overwhelming.

Nevertheless, there is evidence that food banks are becoming part of the support

system instead of a supplementary service to assist longer term solutions. That David

Cameron has welcomed the work of food banks and their growing number shows

that rather than relying on state benefits the needy are being increasingly provided

for by the Big Society3. Taken together with current changes to benefits and

discussions with food bank providers it is reasonable to conclude that this is an

intended consequence.

On a more positive note, collaboration, and even co-location, between food banks

and other services would improve the overall package of help for users. And the

creation of a Newcastle Food Bank network can only help provision.

Finally and most importantly, the hard work of food bank volunteers and the

generous donations of the public do have a huge impact on those affected. This is

clear both from reported testimony and the fact that people keep coming back.

Conclusions

This study highlights the issue of poverty in Newcastle demonstrated by the need for

food banks. Though not the subject of this report, it has also brought up the issue of

‘rough sleeping’ and provided anecdotal evidence of this as both endemic and

persistent.

The study has produced evidence of both a need and an increasing need for food

banks in Newcastle. It has also shown the demand for food kitchens and provided

evidence of increased demand for them.

Clearly then getting enough food is a problem for families and individuals in

Newcastle today.

Some of the main issues these conclusions raise are:

 The public sector’s relationship with food banks as they increase in number –

can the government afford not to fund them?

3 Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian, 18 July 2012.

Food for thought: food bank provision in Newcastle

Page 8 of 9

 The issues of accessibility, such as those concerning faith-based free food

and whether the services of food banks are accessible to all groups e.g. older

people. In other words are food banks accessible to all of the people and to all

of the communities who need their services?

 Raising awareness of poverty not only in Newcastle but throughout the UK -

this will help to reduce stigma around food banks.

 Mutual aid - improving communication between food banks, referral agencies

and other services to create networks and self-help support.

 Practical issues such as storage and distribution – are there sufficient secure

premises available?

These factors will become more important as demand continues to rise.

What’s next?

“Demand has been steadily increasing and the most common reason we have

noticed at our food bank is either debt or benefit changes.” – Food bank coordinator,

Newcastle upon Tyne, 2012.

Food is a basic need and the provision of even a small amount of food has a huge

effect. While they do not deal with the long term underlying issues of hardship and

poverty, food banks help people in a solid practical way at a time when they are both

vulnerable and exposed to other risks.

In general food banks are religious initiatives or community-led projects which meet

an important and necessary need. In so doing they have a positive social impact on

the local community.

Unfortunately the need for food bank services has grown and, without specific

government intervention, this seems set to grow. In fact the government seems intent

on reducing its provision of resources to these very projects.

The view of the food banks themselves is clear: they are responding to increases in

need; their role in local communities is becoming ever more important, and their work

is vital for people in need.

This study has only just begun to scrape the surface. These issues warrant further

exploration.

 

s

e

'Monkseaton North Cabinet Member, Les Miller obviously doesn't rate Tory Mayor Linda Arkley's 'much vaunted' Whitley Bay regeneration very highly when he describes it as s**t. Since Tory Les is being honest, we wonder what else he wants to the lid on? Another Tory 'tweet'

'Monkseaton North Cabinet Member, Les Miller obviously doesn't rate Tory Mayor Linda Arkley's 'much vaunted' Whitley Bay regeneration very highly when he describes it as s**t. Since Tory Les is being honest, we wonder what else he wants to the lid on? Another Tory 'tweet'.

LABOUR URGES MAYOR TO ‘STOP DITHERING’ AND SCRAP CHIEF EXECUTIVE

LABOUR URGES MAYOR TO ‘STOP DITHERING’ AND SCRAP CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Labour councillors in North Tyneside have urged the Borough’s Tory Mayor ‘to stop dithering and scrap the post of Chief Executive of the council.

In Mayor Arkley’s current budget proposals, she has set out plans to ‘delete’ the post of CEO as part of her efforts to turn around a £2m budget shortfall. Her plans would come into force on 31 May 2013 but the Labour majority on the council pushed through a motion last week which would bring the measure into effect ‘immediately’.

The current CEO, Graham Haywood has been employed by the council on a part time basis since 2011 but Labour is arguing that the savings should be made immediately.

Labour group leader Jim Allan said

‘The Mayor should stop dithering, she either needs a CEO or she doesn’t so why not implement her own plan to scrap the post immediately? Full Council voted to pass a measure that would mean further savings last week and the Mayor seems to be dragging her heels over her own proposal. She needs to make savings as the council under her control, has a budget shortfall of over £2m and she needs to answer the question – why not ‘delete’ the post now rather than wait a further 8 months?’

Contact

Jim Allan - Leader of the Labour Group

07909234752

Labour has today launched a Policy Review document entitled "Private Rented Housing: Providing stability and affordability for renters and families".

Press release

Monday 10th December 2012

For immediate use

Labour's Private Rented Housing policy document

Labour has today launched a Policy Review document entitled "Private Rented Housing: Providing stability and affordability for renters and families".

This document sets out new thinking from Labour's Policy Review on giving stability and financial certainty to private renters, including over one million families with children. These proposals would give families and other renters the opportunity to access longer term tenancies allied to predictable rents.

The private rented sector is now a mainstream tenancy with 8.5 million people in England renting privately. But the sector hasn’t just grown, the type of people living in it have changed too. Of the 3.6 million households, nearly a third are now families with children.

But the evidence shows the current model of short-term tenancies and unpredictable rent increases just doesn’t provide families with the stability and the certainty they need.

Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister, said:

“Families need stability to plan where they send their kids to school and certainty to manage their household budgets.

“That’s why Labour is committed to reforming the private rented sector so it works for Britain’s families. With longer term tenancies and predictable rents, the private rented sector will offer the affordable and stable homes that renters need.

“Families will feel that their rented house is a home and it will help strengthen communities as people put down roots and get to know their neighbours.

“Labour’s One Nation housing policy offers stability for families, certainty for landlords and strengthened communities.”

As part of Labour's Policy Review we are looking at the following areas:

· A private rented sector based on long-termism and responsibility so that families can have the stability and security they deserve.

· Providing access to longer term tenancies allied to predictable rents for renters and families so they can plan ahead and manage their household budgets.

· Removing the barriers that stand in the way of longer tenancies and incentivising landlords to offer renters greater stability if they want it.

· Ensuring that the many responsible landlords who do the right thing are not disadvantaged. That is why Labour will work with the sector to develop a range of possible incentives that will form part of a “something for something” deal for landlords.

Ends