Issue - meetings

The Committee received a deputation from Rev. Paul Nicholson on behalf of Northumberland Park Supporters Group.

Rev. Paul Nicholson presented the deputation. NOTED:

a.    There were a significant number of academic studies which showed the impact of low incomes and debt on health outcomes.

b.    Dr Angel Donkin of the Institute of Health Equity argued that "Income impacts on health directly; for instance insufficient money to heat your home or buy a healthy balanced diet. Cold homes increase rates of respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, excess winter deaths and mental illness. Inadequate diets increase the risk of malnutrition, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Debt impacts on health indirectly through increased stress, depression and anxiety."

c.    Job Seekers Allowance has depreciated in value since 1979.  It was argued that a benefit claimant receiving £73.10 a week in JSA was unable to provide themselves with a healthy diet. The benefit system was so inadequate that parents needed their child’s benefits to survive, and the disabled are forced into destitution when they fail the work capability assessment and their disability benefits are stopped. 

d.    Rev. Nicholson advised that low birth weight levels were high in Northumberland Park. Poor maternal nutrition and low birth weight had, since 1972, been described as the strongest predictor of poor learning ability, school performance, behavioural disorders and crime by the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition.

e.    ?The Committee was advised that money spent on increasingly unaffordable levels of rent competed with food, fuel and water. The result was a record increase in evictions, record admittance to hospital with malnutrition and unprecedented rises in mortality and infant deaths in 2015 at national level.

f.     Northumberland Park was the most deprived ward in the Borough. Rev. Nicholson contended that the Council was required, under the Health and Social Services Act 2012, to improve the health of local population. It was suggested that the Council was already exacerbating the situation by extracting council tax from benefit claimants.

g.    It was anticipated that the HDV would exacerbate problems further. Rev. Nicholson argued that council housing was the only housing whose affordability the Council could ensure as landlords. It was feared that the HDV would result in more tenants being at the mercy of a booming housing market. This would result in an even greater proportion of disposable income being spent on rent at the expense of other necessities, leading to even greater poverty and higher levels of ill-health. 

In response to the deputation, the Committee sought clarification on what, in the deputee’s opinion, effect the HDV would have on housing issues and poverty in the area. In response Rev. Nicholson argued that the biggest effect was that the HDV would break up communities and the local networks that residents relied upon. Rev. Nicholson outlined a recent example where a person was relocated from the Love Lane estate and the pay-off that he received was sequestered by HfH to pay off his rent arrears. In addition, the rent in his new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37