Cost of living in the spotlight at Northumberland council meeting

Coun Jeff Watson made the comments at Thursday’s meeting of the county council’s health and well-being board during a discussion on a health needs assessment for benefits and debt advice in Northumberland.

The board had heard from public health registrar Dr Kathryn Bush highlighting the impact of financial issues on people’s health.

A report on the assessment, published on the council’s website, pointed out that the North East has the lowest median weekly earnings in the country.

Furthermore, it identified that women in Northumberland are at “particular risk” of in-work poverty due to their lower earnings and that the county has a higher number of children living in poverty in working families than in non-working families.

According to the report, in October 2021 41.8 per cent of people claiming Universal Credit in Northumberland were in employment.

Despite this, Coun Jeff Watson, who is the council’s cabinet member for healthy lives, pointed out that the cost of living in the region was lower than elsewhere in the country.

Speaking at the meeting, the Conservative councillor for Amble West with Warkworth, said: “Unemployment has been reducing in Northumberland and is at about four per cent, which is the lowest it has been for years. The core of good health is work and employment, and production of wealth.

“I don’t look at the North East as being so much worse than anywhere else in the country. The cost of living in places like London is an awful lot more. Our rent, our beer and our fish and chips are much cheaper.

“If it is cheaper to live in the North East, then we can earn less money and still be as comparatively well off. Does the lowest earning mean very much if you don’t compare it against the cost of living? I’ve never seen any figures that compare that.”

Responding to Coun Watson’s comments, Dr Bush pointed out that people in the North East still earned less than people in areas with comparable costs of living, as opposed to just the capital.

She said: “I think it’s a really good point. I think we can look at some of our near neighbours, other areas in the North like Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield where I think the cost of living is more equitable to here.

“We know that people in the North East are earning less than those areas.

“The other thing we have to look at is our health outcomes. We can see our health outcomes are worse and we know that one of the contributions to that is low income.

“We’re seeing the evidence in our health outcomes even if we’re not seeing it when you look around on a day-to-day basis.”