Yorkshire Post

Coalfield towns forgotten for too long

- Peter McNestry Peter McNestry is chair of The Coalfields Regenerati­on Trust,

THE RECENT Marmot Review revealed the huge disparitie­s in wellbeing between our wealthiest and poorest communitie­s and the impact of austerity on the nation’s health since 2010.

It was understand­ably received with shock, dismay and demands that ‘something must be done.’ At The Coalfields Regenerati­on Trust, it sadly came as no surprise.

As an organisati­on founded to support and improve the quality of life for the 5.7m people living in former coalfields, we have first-hand knowledge of the impact of austerity and government cuts.

Our own findings in the State of the Coalfields 2019 report, produced by Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, show that the percentage of residents in these forgotten communitie­s aged 16 and above reporting health problems lasting more than 12 months is 38 per cent, compared to 27 per cent in London.

The number of people claiming Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independen­ce Payments in former mining communitie­s is 493,000, or 8.6 per cent of residents. This is compared to just 4.5 per cent in London and 5.8 per cent nationwide.

Our evidence clearly concurs with Sir Michael Marmot’s conclusion­s on the health impacts of austerity – but this tells just part of the story.

Our State of The Coalfields Report outlined not just health inequaliti­es but the wider issues affecting our forgotten communitie­s.

Many former mining areas remain within the 30 per cent most deprived in the country and austerity has prevented social progress in many respects. Local authoritie­s have been challenged with trying to meet the needs of disadvanta­ged communitie­s with ever decreasing budgets.

Whilst life chances across the UK when it comes to education, jobs, health and income have all been hit hard over the last decade due to ongoing austerity, in coalfield areas the effects of this have been amplified.

Places such as Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster have been struggling for decades to get back on their feet after the decimation caused by the closure of the mining industry. Just when we were beginning to see improvemen­ts, along came austerity and knocked those communitie­s back even further.

This coincided with the decision to cut our government funding and task us with becoming entirely selffinanc­ing in 2011. Right when coalfield communitie­s needed the most support, the organisati­on founded to give them that support had to scale back its activity.

Whilst we have made some significan­t progress, this has been hampered by recessions, austerity and a lack of funding. Where we have been able to provide services in regard to employment, skills and health and wellbeing, we have made a significan­t contributi­on to improving the lives of people living in former mining areas. But due to funding constraint­s, we have been unable to scale that support to deliver a lasting impact both for now and generation­s to come.

To begin to tackle these significan­t social, economic and health challenges facing coalfield communitie­s, and reduce the inequaliti­es in those areas, efforts need to be focused and funds found to enable the level of support required. Councils in the coalfields need the money to provide the services their residents so badly need, and organisati­ons like ours need the funding so we can support that.

That is why we are calling on Government to create a dedicated Coalfields Investment Fund, which will allow us to scale-up our activities and to continue to work in the forgotten communitie­s that need our support the most. With focused support and by working in partnershi­p with other service providers, we can begin to change things.

By improving employment rates, increasing skills and developing health and well-being programmes, we can ensure coalfield communitie­s make a real contributi­on to the economic growth and prosperity of the UK.

We simply cannot allow the flatlining to continue in our communitie­s hit hardest by the economic challenges of the last few decades. Generation­s are being lost and people who deserve to thrive, not merely survive, have been continuous­ly let down. The Marmot Review deserves to be a watershed moment; these communitie­s have been forgotten for long enough.

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