Rural Poverty - Local solutions to local problems

What can St Edmundsbury do to address the problem of deprivation in the rural areas of St Edmundsbury that have been identified as being particularly acute?

Addressing financial poverty

Wheels to Work

Wheels to Work is a term used to describe schemes which provide transport solutions to individuals who are experiencing difficulties in accessing training, employment and/or educational opportunities, due to lack of suitable public or private transport.

The schemes can be particularly important for people living in isolated rural communities.

The service can be District/Borough Council based but by working with other Councils can be expanded to cover the whole of the county and made available to people between the ages of 16 and 65.

An example is Devon Wheels 2 Work is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) which loans scooters to individuals living in Devon who find it difficult to get to work because they do not have access to private or public transport. Loans last for a period of three months. Individuals must pay a weekly contribution and have a plan to obtain their own transport at the end of the loan period.

Individuals must attend a Compulsory Basic Training course and complete it to a nationally recognised standard. They must also keep the bike in good condition and attend regular safety checks.

Since the launch that project has expanded its fleet of bikes in order to help as many people as possible across the county to access training and employment opportunities.

Increase financial awareness amongst communities.

Encourage use of Suffolk Credit Unions and make information available to district and borough councils, Suffolk Chamber of Commerce and wider networks including community newspapers.

Bury St Edmunds Credit Unions, Ipswich and Suffolk Credit Union, Rainbow Saver Anglia Credit Union (Waveney Valley) and Financial Inclusion & Advice Service (FIAS), Suffolk County Council.

Information, in appropriate format, distributed via all district/ borough councils, major employers and Suffolk Chamber of Commerce.

Encourage new start ups, and help with local business coaching schemes

Promote high skilled low employment business into the area; encourage farm diversification.

Housing Need

The low supply of suitable houses in rural areas is helping to drive house prices up. Planning policy should favour new housing based on low cost, and one or two bedrooms rather than larger properties to redress the balance of housing provision.

Housing Associations should be encouraged to bring their rural housing stock up to Decent Homes Standard, and energy companies should be encouraged to target rural homes for assistance with the installation of central heating preferably with energy efficiency measures to reduce demand on expensive oil and electricity.

The Council should put checks in place to ensure private landlords are maintaining their properties to a suitable standard.

Designate land in highly deprived area as community land trusts to underpin affordable housing, local shops, and services.

Engage with accommodation providers (private rented housing) to ensure safe housing is provided. Develop good practice guidelines for accommodation providers in relation to client group. Work with partners to ensure children and young people live in decent homes, free from the effects of poverty. Decrease in the % of social housing failing the decent homes standard

Improve the home safety. Identify homes in need of fire safety checks and provide free smoke detectors and sprinklers as appropriate. Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service. Identification of properties and advice and help provided

Encouraging networks of mutual volunteering exchanges that could for example village childcare facilities

Ensuring training is available for potential child minders. Promoting awareness of common childcare needs within village communities so that a shared facility can get off the ground making time available to obtain and carry out work.

Addressing Financial and Access poverty - Self Employment Regulations.

Provide clear simple guidance on the rules for self employment; procedures to be followed; pitfalls to be avoided, deadlines to be met for tax, health and safety regulations applicable

Addressing Network Poverty

Provide social and life skills support to help people.

Provide drop in sessions for young people aged 15 to 25 years to socialise and prepare meals with volunteer befrienders. Weekly sessions open to young people. Council to provide training to befrienders.

Identification of opportunities

Work in collaboration with Chamber of Commerce to ascertain the needs of both businesses and new/emerging communities in St Edmundsbury. Jointly develop a survey for local businesses that informs/ highlights gaps in local service delivery. (Note existing Suffolk wide survey already undertaken.)

Encourage Community Task Forces with volunteer outreach projects

To address problems in the villages that have deteriorated due to neglect, such as vandalism; tidying village, dealing with overgrown footpaths; or other issues identified by the Community.

Addressing Access Poverty

Campaign to identify Benefits available to residents

This information is not available to residents from the DSS offices across the Borough as staff in the DSS are obliged to only give information on benefits that the applicant specifically requests, not necessarily what is available. While we need to highlight to residents to all residents the benefits available, in the highly deprived areas are more pro-active campaign providing information to residents is needed.

Promote village car share schemes

With 26% of residents in highly deprived area not owning a car, and public transport delivery restricted to those routes providing a return to the transport operators we need to promote community goodwill by highlighting the opportunities for car share within village communities

Home learning

While education is primarily thought of as being school or college based there are organisations providing home learning schemes. Promotion of such schemes in deprived rural communities might enable young adults, single mothers, and others who need to learn new skills acquire the skills necessary to change careers, or refresh careers.

Social Workers and General Care

Ensure social workers are properly resourced for visits to rural communities.

Ensure helpline information is well distributed and on village/parish noticeboards.

Internet

Promote a programme of broadband delivery to highly deprived villages, as a way to

facilitate the delivery of information and job opportunities. Provide internet facility in village halls/community halls/village shop/pub/hosted by local business/farm that enables access to information and jobs.

General - Planning policy

Put policies in place that encourage low cost low energy private house building, and small business development in areas that are not Key Service Centres; encourage the creation of local 'design codes' that enable the local community to set out to developers the needs of their community.