Tag: Enough is Enough

Edinburgh unveils plan for ending poverty by 2030

Edinburgh skyline

The city council has unveiled a ten-year delivery plan outlining the actions it will take to help eradicate poverty in the Capital by 2030.

Published just under two months since Edinburgh became the first UK local authority to set a target date for ending poverty, the End Poverty in Edinburgh Delivery Plan 2020-2030 will be considered by the Council’s Policy and Sustainability Committee on 1 December. 

It sets out key actions to be taken by the Council over the next decade in response to the final report from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, which was published in September this year. 

Preventing poverty through people-focused and “poverty-proofed” Council services, helping households maximise their incomes, establishing Edinburgh as a Living Wage City and pressing the UK and Scottish Governments for changes to housing investment and social security policy are among the priority actions outlined in the delivery plan.  

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “Tackling poverty and inequality in our City drives the choices we are making as a Council. We have to act decisively if we’re to eradicate poverty in the Capital by 2030. The first iteration of the delivery plan, just weeks after we received the final recommendations from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, is the next major step towards that aim. 

“The ongoing impact of the Covid19 pandemic has hit those on lowest incomes hardest, this should challenge all of us to join the fight to end poverty in Edinburgh. We’ll be ensuring this is central to the choices we make when setting our budget and refreshing the Council’s Business Plan in early 2021.

“This isn’t something the Council can achieve in isolation, however, and this plan is only the first step towards meeting the call to action the Commission has set for us all. The next year will be critical in making sure we pull together and start the long-term work we need to do to end poverty in Edinburgh.

Depute Leader Cammy Day said: “It’s estimated there’s as much as £80 million in unclaimed benefits in the city. Making sure people are able to access all the financial support they are entitled to is one vital step we can take towards ending poverty in Edinburgh.

“The Edinburgh Poverty Commission report showed us that there are already a number of excellent support services working hard in this city to help Edinburgh residents do just that, but there is much more we need to do. Eradicating poverty in Edinburgh will take a massive collective effort – a ‘whole city approach’ – and this new delivery plan will see us working with our partners across the city to extend these supports and make sure high quality services to prevent or help people out of poverty are embedded in every community in Edinburgh.

“We’ll also continue to press the Scottish and UK Governments hard on making essential changes to housing investment and to social security policy and implementation to build a stronger support system for Scotland that, to quote the Edinburgh Poverty Commission report, ‘is based on a fundamental objective of providing income security sufficient for people in Edinburgh to live free of poverty‘”.

The End Poverty in Edinburgh Delivery Plan 2020-2030 highlights 13 priority actions needed to accelerate progress towards the goal of ending poverty in Edinburgh by 2030, and 44 actions identified for delivery and implementation through existing or forthcoming mainstream Council plans and strategies.

The Plan’s actions span seven ‘action areas’, as outlined in the final report from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission: 

  • The right support in the places we live and work
  • Fair work that provides dignity and security
  • A decent home we can afford to live in
  • Income security that offers a real lifeline
  • Opportunities that drive justice and boost prospects
  • Connections in a city that belongs to us
  • Equality in our health and wellbeing

If approved by councillors on the Policy and Sustainability Committee on 1 December, the Delivery Plan will then be implemented, with a detailed progress monitoring framework brought back to Committee within two cycles. 

In October, the Committee agreed to endorse a Team Edinburgh approach with other partners and organisations to become the first UK local authority to commit to ending poverty by a specific date.

On the day the Capital Coalition made their announcement on poverty targets a protest was taking place in Muirhouse, one of the capital’s poorest areas.

Living Rent campaigners staged an ‘Enough is Enough’ event to highlight the intolerable conditions council tenants are living in.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Another Edinburgh is Possible

Campaigners ‘mourn the death of public services’

THIS MORNING, before the City of Edinburgh Council meeting, Another Edinburgh is Possible campaigners held a socially distanced protest at 9am outside the City Chambers to mourn the death of public services, and make the case for a new beginning – properly funded local public services.

In advance of the protest campaigners projected the ‘Another Edinburgh is Possible’ message on City Council, Scottish Government and Westminster Government buildings around Edinburgh.

Why we are protesting

In its public consultation document (www.edinburgh.gov.uk/budget) Edinburgh City Council states that:

The Council has already identified over £80m of savings and funding in 2020/21, but has to find at least £5.1m more because of extra costs and lower income resulting from the pandemic. Over the next three years, the Council has identified £40m of savings, but needs to find at least a further £47.5m in savings or service cuts.

The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, through which the Council and the NHS administer integrated health and social care, has already agreed cuts of £8 million.

Since 2012/13, Edinburgh City Council budget cuts have amounted to £320 million. Year on year cuts – so called savings – have resulted in a hollowing out of jobs and services to Edinburgh residents.

The impact of a decade of cuts

These cuts have had a terrible effect on essential services. The most vulnerable, who have also been hit by cuts in social security benefits, have suffered most. Edinburgh has the lowest expenditure per capita on local services in Scotland.

Covid19 has added to an already bleak picture with increases in unemployment, child poverty and mental distress. The pandemic has shone a harsh light on the gaps in local services and underlined the importance of key workers and health, social care, housing and education.

Another Edinburgh is Possible

Another Edinburgh Is Possible brings together council workers, trade unionists and community activists around a common belief that the cuts need to stop; enough is enough. We argue for local public services that meet local needs. We call on councillors to unite with campaigners to argue the case for properly funded, democratically controlled local public services.

Contact email: edinburghjustrecovery@gmail.com