Sheffield must refresh its anti-poverty approach, a new report has found, with 1 in 4 people in the city in poverty.
Director of Public Health, Greg Fell presented his annual health report to the Council yesterday, with a focus on poverty, and outlined how the city must reset its approach to tackling the issue.
33% of children in Sheffield are in poverty, whilst it is estimated that 47,500 people are in ‘negative budgets’ where they can’t afford their living costs, a number that has increased in recent years.
Greg Fell said: “Poverty matters to health for so many reasons, hopefully this report pushes organisations and agencies, including the council, to think about the things they’ve got responsibility for, to ask what can we do?”
“The problem is there’s no single, simple idea of poverty, and so there’s no single, simple solution.”
Fell outlined how the effects of poverty can be seen in the differences in life expectancy along the No.83 bus route, with the life expectancy for a woman in Burngreave ten years less than a woman in Fulwood.
The report recommends that the council focus on the three main drivers of poverty – income from employment, costs of living, and income from social security and benefits in kind.
More suggestions include policies to maximise income, with a cash first approach, and to minimise expenditure through insulation of homes.
Mr. Fell also called on businesses to do more to help people in tough times, and for a unified approach to addressing poverty from local government, NHS organisations, voluntary organisations, businesses and community groups.
A representative from the Cathedral Archer Project welcomed the report, but added: ‘the key reason for poverty and homelessness in Sheffield relates to the minimum wage, and that’s where the focus needs to be now for Sheffield City Council going forward’.
The report is just the latest in Sheffield City Council’s attempts to tackle poverty in the city.
The Sheffield Poverty Truth commission is underway, with a group of people with lived experience of poverty coming together. Leaders within the city are collectively working to understand the nature of poverty and explore creative ways to address it.