The City of Edinburgh Council Leader Adam McVey has pledged that eradicating poverty will stay at the heart of the Council’s future actions and policies.
This follows the publication of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission’s final report, A Just Capital: Actions to End Poverty in Edinburgh, which was published yesterday.
The report identifies seven key areas of action to end poverty in Edinburgh by the end of this decade, including Edinburgh becoming a living wage city, tackling the housing crisis and closing the educational attainment gap.
It marks the end of the work of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission as it hands over to End Poverty Edinburgh – a new independent group of residents with first-hand experience of living on a low income and civic allies drawn from business, public services and the third sector.
As a group, they will work to raise awareness and understanding of poverty, influence decisions, and hold the city to account for ending poverty in Edinburgh.
Adam McVey, Council Leader, said: “On behalf of the Council, I would like to extend my thanks to those in the Edinburgh Poverty Commission and End Poverty Edinburgh for the time, dedication and research that has gone into creating this report.
“I’m also extremely grateful to those who shared their personal experiences and those of their families in helping get to the root of the issues. Tackling poverty in our city is one of our key priorities as a Council – helping those who need it, making resources available for people and, ultimately, doing everything we can to eradicate it in Edinburgh.
“We know that the pandemic has been incredibly challenging for those who were experiencing or at risk of poverty in our city.
“The Commission has pulled no punches and got to the heart of the issues – while there is no doubt that the pandemic has exacerbated the situation, poverty in Edinburgh is a crisis that goes beyond one cause and we cannot ignore it.
“If we’re to make progress on the scale required, it needs a concentrated effort from us, our partners and allied organisations, local business and residents acting as one Team Edinburgh.
“The seven areas of action give our City clear and defined areas for us to focus on and we appreciate that they are interlinked and support each other.
“Our 2050 Edinburgh City Vision is of a fair city where all residents share in its success and have a good level of wellbeing and life experience and we have been working with the Commission throughout our continued response to the pandemic to make that vision a reality, ensuring that as we rebuild our city we do it with our most vulnerable in mind.
“The educational attainment gap is a big priority for us and has been for a long while now. We were making good progress in this area before the pandemic but we’re mindful that the disruption to the school term earlier this year has widened that gap. Now we need to work with our schools and educational partners to double down on that work and ensure the progress continues to be made.
“We also know that access to and cost of housing is a central issue in Edinburgh and needs a focused and strategic approach in collaboration with the Scottish Government to deliver the new homes needed to make significant impact.
“We’ve already made progress around short term lets and will be ready to act quickly when regulations come into effect. We’re proud that Council houses being built right now are some of the best homes being built in the City but there is still work to be done to make sure we can provide good quality and affordable homes for everyone in our city who need them.
“The Edinburgh Poverty Commission has spent over two years listening to the voices of the people of Edinburgh and the reality faced by many of our residents, with COVID making it harder than ever for too many.
“That’s why the Council and the city has to come together to tackle both the cause and consequences of poverty. It will take time and won’t be easy, but we will ensure it remains at the heart of our policies as we drive the change needed across the Capital in partnership.”
While over 200 people attended the online launch of the report, local mum Ashey was picking her children up from school.
She had just left her youngest at her Nan’s as it was raining and the bairn has a cold. Nan had also given Ashley £5 to tide her over until partner gets paid on Friday. He has two cleaning jobs but he expects to be paid off at any time as one big office contract has just been terminated and the other is also looking vulnerable.
Ashley will just have time to pick up the kids, go to Farmfoods, collect the bairn then make the tea for her partner getting home, as he has to be back out for his evening cleaning job.
Tomorrow … well, we will face that tomorrow.
Surviving, not living. There are families just like Ashley’s all over Edinburgh, one of the richest cities in the world.
Edinburgh Poverty Commission set out a ten year ‘horizon’ for eradicating poverty in the capital. For all the ‘horizons’ and the council’s ‘visions’, you wonder where Ashley and her family will be in ten years time, when for now just gettting by, getting through from one day to the next is the ever-present challenge.
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