By Rachel Bishop-Firth
I’m very pleased to start this article with a piece of great news for Wokingham residents. After years of campaigning, planning and hard work by council officers and councillors, the new Twyford Library in the old Polehampton Boys’ School opened its doors on June 13.
The new library provides residents with access to books, free internet and information on council services.
It has also been set up so that it can be used for community events, and by the time this article is published the first event will have already been held – a community drop-in session for residents to discuss the new Wokingham Borough Community Vision.
The new library is one example of how Wokingham Borough Council can deliver great things for our residents.
To do this, we need the backing of our national government.
I’ve written before in Wokingham Today about the problems caused across the Borough by the shambolic national approach to increased poverty and hardship under the current government.
Housing is unaffordable for many people, the cost of food and fuel is continuing to rise and the safety net for those looking for work or caring for dependents is insufficient to keep people from falling into poverty.
To prevent a complete collapse of the system the government has been forced to make repeated short-term fixes, such as providing councils with emergency funding for those living in hardship.
This chaotic approach means that the underlying economic and social problems spiral. Poor quality housing, the stress of being unable to make ends meet, and diets which rely on cheap carbohydrates, are all making people ill.
The number of people in this country who are too sick to work has grown, and patients arriving in hospital with malnutrition are more expensive to treat.
Most worryingly, children can have their futures permanently affected if they grow up in a family who cannot afford to buy them essentials including the school supplies that they need to succeed.
Wokingham Borough Council and the local voluntary sector are filling the gap as best as they can, but lack of funding means that we simply cannot ensure that all of our residents have the basic essentials of food, heating and shelter.
Tackling poverty means tackling the root causes.
Making sure that everyone can afford a decent home, food and heating. Having a safety net to stop people falling into poverty. Preventing problems from spiralling and becoming both harder and more expensive to solve.
The Liberal Democrats have a target of ending deep poverty within a decade by tackling the real underlying issues – improving access to secure, affordable housing; increasing Universal Credit so that it covers the basic essentials such as food and bills, and improving the system for the state pension, payments for carers and those living with disabilities.
I want to end this column by repeating something which I wrote in April.
Wokingham Borough Council and our Hardship Alliance partners are achieving great things locally. But to end poverty in Wokingham we need the backing of a national government which takes a serious, coherent and long term approach to ensuring we can all afford the basic essentials
Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth is the executive member for Resident Services, Inclusion and Fighting Poverty and ward member for Emmbrook
