‘Council should become living wage employer for directly and indirectly employed staff’ days anti-poverty worker

At a Governance and Strategic Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 3, members received a deputation from the Committee on the Administration of Justice’s (CAJ) Senior Policy Officer, Eliza Browning, and the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network’s (NIAPN) Development Coordinator, Becca Bor.

Ms Browning explained that, while it is the Northern Ireland Executive’s responsibility to adopt an anti-poverty strategy, local councils also have the responsibility of 'identifying long -term objectives to improve the economic wellbeing of the district'.

“It’s an economic strategy that must be integrated and financed through all Stormont departments and the same thing goes for councils, ” Ms. Bor explained.

“Eradicating poverty starts at the unit of the household, so income needs to be increased and expenditure decreased at a household level.

“Community wealth building alone is not an anti -poverty strategy, so the interventions need to be cash-first interventions; a living wage, welfare mitigations, child payments, etc.

“There are already focus groups and work with people who have lived experience of poverty, but I think there's more to do.

“Firstly council should become an accredited living wage employer for directly and indirectly employed staff, and secondly, council should adopt ethical procurement policies in line with the recommendations of the union movement.

“Council can also work to decrease expenditure and support a free school day by working with schools, the Education Authority and the community voluntary sector, to look at costs throughout the course of the day. Everything from uniforms to breakfast clubs and how much are our households are having to pay.

“Finally council should examine the impact of rents and house prices in the area, and council has a housing working group, but thinking through rent as well as the cost of housing has to be part and parcel of that.”

Ms Browning added: “ Local authorities should also consider the standard of fitness of housing, and we know that there's high rates of mould in cold houses in this area.”

“[Council can] use its enforcement powers to make sure properties meet their fitness standards and people are spending less money on fuel.

“Finally council could do a lot more in terms of its communications, by using its website and social media to signpost people to the resources that exist within our council area.”

Ms Bor concluded: "What you have been doing is absolutely important but there are things within council, within planning, and within wages in this local area that need to be addressed rapidly and I think that's something that could be done."

NIAPN was established in 1991 as part of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) to ‘strengthen the collective voice of those working to end poverty and to enable people experiencing poverty to effectively engage with and influence policy makers’.

NIAPN is an umbrella organisation, having a membership throughout the North of organisations in the voluntary and community sector, public and statutory bodies and trade unions. The majority of its members are small community groups in the most disadvantaged areas of the region.