Letter: We Hope This Council Does Better on Poverty in Guildford

Published on: 9 Jun, 2019
Updated on: 8 Jun, 2019

From Brian Creese

spokesperson for Guildford Labour

In response to: Scandal of Families Going Hungry in ‘Affluent’ Guildford

My thanks to The Guildford Dragon for highlighting the Food Poverty report presented to council this week. It is a sobering reminder to many that although an affluent area, thousands of Guildford residents live in or near poverty.

Guildford Labour highlighted these issues during the local election campaign where we led on homelessness, affordable rental housing, cost of transport and pollution. We fully accept that voters were more concerned with sending messages about Brexit and the Local Plan, but in our view, the new council will be judged on how it responds to issues such as poverty in our borough.

A recent report commissioned by End Child Poverty suggests there are around 5,350 children living in poverty in the Guildford parliamentary constituency. We will be asking how the council plans to tackle this appalling situation, especially given the cuts to local Children’s Centres.

However perhaps the most disturbing paragraph in the Food Poverty reports notes “…the failure of the lead councillor with responsibility for health and community welfare to respond to requests to contribute to the review.” Clearly the last administration did not see food poverty as a priority – we can only hope the new one does better.

Share This Post