Cabinet:

1. Supported the launch of the Building Bridges to Opportunity programme and requested that 6 monthly updates come to Cabinet;

2. Requested the Leader of the Council to formally appoint a champion for this programme.

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

a)     In 1997 the Council approved an anti-poverty strategy and although this report was not an anti-poverty strategy, poverty had remained an important focus of the Council’s activity; 

b)    The position paper was focussed on developing a framework to strengthen the work that the city as a whole was doing to tackle poverty;

c)     The framework focussed on three areas:

1. How would the Council stop people falling into poverty;

2. If people were in poverty, how would the Council help them;

3. If people were in poverty, what could the Council do to mitigate;

d)    The response to the cost of living crisis included short term ‘sticking plasters’ that could be used to help people at the point of crisis;

e)     Despite efforts, over 20% of children in Plymouth continued to grow up in poverty;

f)      More work was being done to help people lift themselves out of poverty and be able to earn better money, to understand health systems and how to use them, to get better jobs through better skills, to live in better housing, to enjoy culture and to have their horizons widened by the cultural offerings of the city;

g)     The position paper would help map what was already being done and identify where learning could be done. It would celebrate successes as well as identify gaps and build the framework that would bring the work into a cohesive hold across all of the different strategies;

h)    One of the first actions of the new Prime Minister was to set up a cross departmental task force, jointly chaired by two Secretaries of State, hosted by the Cabinet Office, to look at what national Government could do to tackle child poverty;

i)      The Joseph Rowntree Foundation were also focussing on poverty;

j)      Dependant on the agreed recommendations from Cabinet, the Child Poverty Action Group would discover their full range of activity for 2025.

Ruth Harrell (Director of Public Health) added:

k)     The work on the Position Paper was in the engagement phase which meant consulting with partners and collaborators across the city;

l)      There was more residents living in deprivation in Plymouth than the English average;

m)   Nearly a quarter of Plymouth residents were economically inactive due to various reasons including long-term sickness and people relying on lower skilled and low paid work;

n)    The goal was the build on the assets and rich cultural history that Plymouth already had, as well as pull together the economic output;

o)    Public sector organisations had been running initiatives such as Plymouth Sound National Marine Park which offered lots of opportunities not just for jobs and resources but also for green and blue spaces;

p)    Plymouth’s economy was driven through marine, defence manufacturing, medical and digital industries;

q)    Building Bridges to Opportunity wanted to help set an environment where people didn’t fall into poverty in the first place, where they can lift themselves out of poverty and if they were in poverty, how could PCC ensure they experience the least harm possible.

Nick Shaw (Public Health Registrar) added:

r)     Due to the complexity of it, there were no quick answers in addressing the people who lived in poverty;

s)     All poverty was multi and trans generational;

t)     The work on poverty addressed policies at a local level, including work in the Plymouth Plan around economic inactivity and poverty in the city.

Cabinet:

1. Supported the launch of the Building Bridges to Opportunity programme and requested that 6 monthly updates come to Cabinet;

2. Requested the Leader of the Council to formally appoint a champion for this programme.