East Durham Trust's plea to tackle inequality and deprivation

The East Durham Trust supports disadvantaged families in the district suffering from deprivation and hardship.

It’s food parcel service and welfare advice help hundreds of families in the former mining communities of the county and is currently on hand to help people through the current cost of living crisis.

Research published in January identified ‘left behind neighbourhoods’ across England and identified County Durham as having the highest number, with 16.

Read more: Government reveals how it believs it is levelling up the North East

Chief executive of the charity, Graham Easterlow, said: “We are acutely aware of the devastating impact the drastic inequalities across our country enact and what needs to change to level up our communities.

“Every day we see the impacts of economic imbalance due to deep-rooted poverty. Every day we witness the effects of health inequality and the bearings of deep-rooted socio-economic deprivation.”

Earlier this week, the Government set out plans for a rise in pay, employment and productivity in “every area” in the UK, while local public transport across the country must become “significantly closer” to London’s standards.

Included in the white paper were multiple examples of how the North East has already benefited from government funding but didn’t include any new schemes or investments.

East Durham trust chief executive, Grahame Easterlow

In a letter to Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, Mr Easterlow said: “It is with some sadness on our part that what is outlined in the Governments Levelling Up agenda feels desperately familiar and very much like we have ‘been here before’.

“Looking at what is laid out in the proposals, we are left wondering what is truly different and radical about this approach?

 The voluntary, community and social enterprise has worked in the community throughout the pandemic “to face down true adversity and avoid catastrophe”. It has helped 18,000 people in food crisis, made over 10,000 calls to isolated people and distributed hundreds of tonnes of food to those in need.

The letter added: “The Governments Levelling Up ambitions should be music to our ears. We should be filled with the same optimism as communities were at the turn of the millennium. We wanted so badly to read the announcement of the Levelling Up mission and be filled with hope. Sadly we have been left wanting so much more.

“We worry that a lack of new resources for enacting this wide-ranging agenda appears to make this hope unviable. Investment of new resources is desperately needed if we are truly going to level up.

“If there is to be no new money then local investment must at least be maintained at the same level as previous funding schemes. Not to do so in the face of current national and global economic factors feels like shuffling the chairs on the Titanic. We fear that with no credible long-term investment, these missions are doomed to failure from the start.”

Read more: Darlington woman forced to chose between 'heat or eat'

Mr Easterlow described how distraught families contacting the charity has, sadly, become reality with people living in a cycle from “crisis to crisis”.

“A mother of three contacted us for support for the first time. She was in floods of tears at an absolute loss at to how she was going to make ends meet, struggling to both heat her home and feed her children,” the letter explained.

“We also had a 70 year-old veteran contact us who lives alone and was without gas for 3 days before he was directed to us for support.”

The charity welcomed the news of extensions to discounts and rebates for household bills but is concerned about the future.

The global cost of the pandemic and local alterations in post-Brexit Britain have had devastating impacts on communities, and rising energy bills adds further concern to an ongoing crisis.

The letter adds: “We fear that in the face of a cost of living crisis, the actions and resources laid out in these proposals fall far short of the radical actions needed to truly level up the UK.

It outlines five “unanswered questions” it asks the government to consider responding to:

- In the face of a sustained cost of living crisis, will these plans truly make a difference to someone in a part-time minimum wage job who must catch a taxi from their home to the local bus station and then catch two buses to work?

- Will these proposals help parents of three who are seeing their prepayment meter energy bills rise, even before the price cap lift?

- Will these Twelve Missions truly support the homeless veteran with mental health needs who has fallen into substance abuse?

- Will these measures be enough to draw investment into our local town and village centres and support local businesses like our local café, whose relative costs are the same the major chain brand down the road?

- Will these ambitions provide greater opportunities for those furthest away from the labour market, such as the families we support who are living in third-generation unemployment?

“We believe that it is only by working together across society that we can bring about the changes needed to truly improve the lives of people living in East Durham.

“We simply need to be given the right resources, in an effective way and at the right time.”

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