Five years on from setting up a food bank in his constituency office, Neil Coyle believes a “catastrophic” mini-budget will see food bank use rise.
The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark established the food bank at his constituency office on Jamaica Road in 2017.
“When I stood in 2015 we could see rising prices and street homelessness… numbers were going through the roof back then,” he said.
As well as non-perishable food, it supplies people with toiletries and is somewhere where Neil refers people to other available services.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/news/community/cost-of-living-crisis-southwark-foodbank-leading-the-charge-on-food-poverty-and-its-causes/
Neil says the food bank has scaled down since the first lockdown when his personal office was filled with towers of beans and cereal.
But speaking on Friday, September 3, hours after the mini-budget signalled sweeping tax cuts, Neil says food bank use will continue to rise.
Labour MPs have said the budget disproportionately benefits the wealthy and will saddle the next generation with huge debt from high borrowing.
The 45 per cent top rate of income tax will be scrapped as will the planned corporation tax rise from 19 to 25 per cent.
Neil said: “There was nothing in that today that will help the average couple living in Southwark…the people who come into our food bank aren’t millionaires.”
Fortunately, he says “there’s a network we can rely on”. Two Trussell Trust food banks are within a fifteen-minute walk of his constituency office.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/news/food-bank-serving-250-people-says-current-situation-is-unsustainable/
“We’re going to see food bank use rise, we’re going see more people pushed into more desolate measures,” he said.
He believes Brexit has played a significant role in the current economic malaise: “They’re not acknowledging the damage Brexit had done to the workforce in this country. Why do we have more vacancies than unemployed people?”
Reflecting on the thousands who have volunteered at food banks, Neil says some food banks, such as Southwark Foodbank in Peckham, are short on volunteers once more.
“We’re going to need this army of volunteers and we’re going to need them more than ever,” he said.
Food banks in the local area include:
Southwark Foodbank, Pecan, 121a Peckham High Street, Peckham, SE15 5SE
City Hope Church, 121 Drummond Road, London, SE16 2JY
Peckham Methodist Church, 2 Wood’s Rd, London, SE15 2PX
The Borough Food Cooperative, St. George the Martyr Church, Borough High St, London SE1 1JA