Cllr Evelyn Akoto, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Public Health, Southwark Council – Written evidence (FPO0024) SUMMARY 01. As a London borough, Southwark has seen an increase in the number of residents who are struggling to afford basic food items, especially people who rely on benefits and those who are struggling to make ends meet with insufficient salaries. While it is hard to accept that people in 21st century Britain are going hungry, we are passionate in doing what we can to tackle it. We welcome this inquiry as it look at key aspects driving this and the important interlink between inequality, health inequalities and food sustainability. 02. National figures suggest that one in five over 16 year olds in England are food insecure to some degree, and one in 12 are moderately to severely food insecure. This translates to 53,000 of our residents being somewhat food insecure and over 20,000 being so food insecure that they may be skipping meals because they cannot afford to eat and experience real hunger. Simultaneously, food banks in the borough have seen a 31% and 45% increases respectively in referrals during 2017-18, with no sign of the demand abating in the future. 03. As will be made clear in our response, there are principally five reasons behind this, according to evidence available in the borough and academic research: declining or stagnant wages, welfare reform, destitution, no recourse to public funds, and the interaction between ‘food deserts’ and the ‘poverty premium’. Together, these factors create environments where low-income residents struggle to generate sufficient incomes with little or no access to healthy, fresh food options. 04. Southwark Council has worked alongside over 60 local community groups, organisations and businesses to develop its first ever food insecurity strategy, titled Fairer Food Southwark: a borough-wide action plan to increase household food security. The action plan was truly co-produced and has been jointly led by Southwark Council and the Southwark Food Action Alliance (SFAA) to implement, with the aim of developing a more coordinated offer for food insecure residents in the borough, improve those people’s health and support them to understand what support is available. 05. This type of work is crucial as the causes behind food insecurity are multiple and cannot be solved alone. Partnership working and multi-pronged approaches help ensure a more appropriate and well-rounded support system and you are more likely to reach those residents who are most in need but may be difficult to reach. 06. We hope that our response helps inform the committee’s inquiry and we would be delighted to provide any further information on the work that we are doing to 1 tackle this important issue, and what we have found to work locally. Moving this issue up the national agenda is crucial and there are many opportunities for national government to help prevent food insecurity. Some of the measures we strongly recommend in our response are: implementing further reforms to Universal Credit, taking tougher action on advertising of unhealthy foods, introducing a national strategy to reduce food insecurity, funding Free School Meals programmes and Holiday Hunger programmes nationally, and introducing a living wage requirement for all employers. 2 RESPONSE 1) What are the key causes of food insecurity in the UK? Can you outline any significant trends in food insecurity in the UK? To what extent (and why) have these challenges persisted over a number of years? 07. Within the borough, we and local partners have noted the following factors contributing to increased food insecurity: Declining or stagnant incomes compared to living costs, plus temporary and zero hours contracts Negative impact of welfare reform, transition to Universal Credit (UC) in particular High levels of destitution People with NRPF ‘stuck’ for a long time with no way to improve their own situation Unhealthy food environments featuring : proliferation of cheap, poor quality food (food swamps), food deserts and more expensive local stores (creating a poverty premium) 08. Declining or stagnant incomes combined with rising living costs mean that many households are struggling to get by. In Southwark, households are likely to be extra squeezed by high London housing costs. Southwark residents in the lower quartile for income will spend 67% of their median monthly income on rent, compared to a national average of 29%. This places a considerable strain on people’s resources. National data suggests that households earning below £15,860 per annum after housing costs need to spend 42% of their household income on food to meet the government’s nutritional guidelines, as set out in the Eatwell Plate. A four-person family needs to spend £103.17 per week to meet the Eatwell guidelines, making a healthy diet unaffordable for many. 52% of households with children nationally are unable to afford a ‘socially acceptable diet’ as defined by the Minimum Income Standard. This applies to a diet which is both healthy and allows social participation (e.g. inviting guests for dinner or going out occasionally to a restaurant for a celebration). According to local food banks, The Southwark Foodbank and Central Southwark Community Hub, insufficient salaries were cited as the reason for almost 1 in 6 referrals in 2017-18. Those with insecure, variable or lower incomes are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity. This includes freelancers, seasonal workers, those on zero- hours contracts and part-time workers. 60% of food insecure Londoners are either in part-time or full-time work. 3 09. The challenge with declining or stagnant incomes can be noted in the borough as food bank usage has been on the rise. Southwark Foodbank saw a 31% increase in referrals in 2017-18 from the previous year and the Oasis Hub Waterloo Foodbank saw a 45% increase for this period at its Southwark branch on Borough High Street. The reason for referrals to food banks in Southwark in 2017-18 were recorded as: Problems with benefits, due to delays or changes in the system (41%) Low income (16%) No recourse to public funds (NRPF) (16%) Debt (11%) 10. Welfare reforms and the introduction of Universal Credit (UC) have had a considerable impact on Southwark’s residents. Whilst not yet fully rolled out across the country, Southwark has been substantially affected by UC, as it was one of the first places in Great Britain to have full service rollout from 2015. By the time the rollout is complete in early 2024 (at its earliest), Southwark Council’s Exchequer Team project that 40,000 households will be claiming Universal Credit. Since the rollout in Southwark, a significant number of claimants have fallen into rent arrears and many struggle to pay back and end up with significant debt. Arrears are amongst Southwark tenants are at around 8% of rent owed. The reasons behind the increase in rent arrears are partly due to the application process to join UC, and partly due to the features of the new system: UC is paid monthly, rather than weekly. This can be problematic for those who are used to budgeting weekly and who may find themselves short of money at the end of the month. All benefits are paid together as one lump sum – with the recipient being responsible for paying rent from their monthly payment, if they are in receipt of housing benefit. This means that after rent is paid, there may be little money left for living expenses. The initial 5-week period without benefit income after applying for UC has had a major impact on claimants as it is paid in arrears. Many of those receiving benefits will not have savings to tide them over during this transition period. 11.Claimants from 2016 have still not been able to repay the rent arrears they incurred through the first years of the UC rollout, and this has a significant impact on the council because Southwark is the biggest social landlord in London. If the current trends continue in the same way since the rollout, the council would be left with a total rent debt of £5.6m by 2024/25. This is at the same time that UC continues to have a persistent and significant negative impact on our tenants, who would be left to deal with the stress of growing debt which they struggle to pay back. 4 12.There is further evidence that this is not solely the experience of Southwark. In March 2018, the Trussell Trust surveyed 284 users from 30 foodbanks in Great Britain (including Southwark) to look at the effects of Universal Credit rollout, which found that: 70% said that the transition to Universal Credit had put them in debt. 63% of the sample said that they were offered no statutory support during this wait. 57% of respondents said that they had experienced mental or physical health issues as a result of the wait for their first payment. 35% of the sample waited more than 6 weeks for their first UC payment. 13. Furthermore, evidence from the Trussell Trust illustrates that full Universal Credit rollout has led to a rise in people seeking emergency food aid. The charity reported a 30% increase in food parcels needed in areas of full Universal Credit rollout, six months after the benefit went live. This compared to a 12% increase in demand over this time in equivalent areas that are yet to experience the full rollout. 14. Evidence further from Trussell Trust suggests that single people on benefits without children are particularly vulnerable during the migration to Universal Credit, as they do not have a partner’s income or child benefit to sustain them during the transitional period.