It’s been a tough start to this Government’s time in office, because there is a lot to put right and a great deal of urgency. Given the dire economic inheritance Labour has been faced with, the Government has had to take difficult decisions to put our public finances on a sustainable footing as we tackle the £22 billion black hole.
Politics was once famously described as the art of the possible, and government is about priorities. Something that has become a recurring theme across the country is that we are increasingly divided financially between the secure and the not-secure. It is breaking down on some surprising class, age and occupational lines – far from the traditional divides once expected. But it has left far too many people barely coping, always on the edge of uncertainty and the brink of something far worse.
We’re seeing it here first hand in Crawley most clearly with the year on year rise in temporary accommodation needs as tenants are evicted from their homes in the private rented sector with nowhere else affordable to go to.
New figures show relative child poverty has risen a staggering 44.6% in Crawley since 2015. Across the country, 1.3 million more people have fallen into poverty since 2010/11, with living standards falling by the largest year-on-year drop since records began in 2022/23. For over a decade people have also been denied the security and dignity that good work affords with more than a near record 2.8 million people out of work due to sickness.
To help address this, the new Labour Government has just announced a £421m boost to local authorities to help vulnerable families with the cost of their energy, food and water – through an extension of the Household Support Fund.
The Conservatives left Britain broke and broken – and the children and families pushed into poverty by Conservative incompetence have been hit harder than most.
And Labour won’t stop there – the new government is taking further action to fix the foundations through our plans to grow the economy, make work pay, and Get Britain Working again.
Cllr Michael Jones
Leader, Crawley Borough Council