Kim McGuinness: Cost of living crisis worse than COVID-19 for community groups

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness is calling on the government to repeat the emergency grants for frontline charities during the pandemic to help them tackle the cost of living crisis.

In a paper published today, McGuinness reports over half of the North East community organisations fighting poverty believe the cost of living crisis is having more of an effect on them than the Covid-19 pandemic.

And none more so than Hedworthfield Community Association in Jarrow- a facility providing vital and necessary support to the local area through extracurricular activities, socialisation and poverty support.

Councillor Audrey Huntley, trustee and director of Hedworthfield Community Association, said: “Everybody is struggling. All of our bills have gone up by 40%.

“We’re constantly trying to fill in the gaps. It isn’t just about community centres, it’s about people putting their own lights on, feeding their own families- it’s everywhere.”

In 2022 the North East overtook London and became the area with the highest child poverty rates in the UK. The rising rates of poverty across the region is resulting in higher demand on services such as the ones Hedworthfield provides.

According to the Commissioner’s ‘Worse than Covid’ report, 71% of community organisations are supporting more people now than they were 12 months ago and 79% said they are struggling to meet the demand.

Councillor Huntley continued: “We’re very much about keeping people’s pride because we could all be in that position one day, it’s too easy for people to slip and people don’t have anything to support them anymore. It’s getting worse.

“Unfortunately the government doesn’t see it and I can’t honestly see them ever doing it because they live in a different bubble. They don’t see what we see out and about.”

And so Kim McGuinness is calling on central government to repeat the grants available to facilities like Hedworthfield during the pandemic to help them meet this demand.

Alongside this, she wishes to see investments into rising mental health and personal debt crisis, increase in pay for public service employees and reasonable adjustments to Universal Credit payments.

Speaking from Hedworthfield, Ms McGuinness said: “They are seeing more demand than ever before, they’re seeing their bills rise and most of them are telling us they’re struggling to keep the lights on and keep their vital services running.

“I think what a lot of this government is doing is thinking very short-term about this little support here or apply for that tiny support grant there when actually they need to be thinking about the impact that community organisations like this are having and what they’re preventing. They prevent crime, they prevent mental health crises, they’re keeping people fed, they’re giving young people free activities- all of that saves money in the long-term.

“And so, this investment up-front will be worth billions later down the road. But if they don’t make this investment now, I think the cost to the public purse will be far greater.”