Sadly, the joke’s on us

At a time when so many people in our city are struggling to keep food on the table, heat their homes, and maintain a dignified later life, remarks about “the poor”, however intended, cannot and must not be dismissed as harmless humour.

The recent online comments made by the Leader of Norfolk County Council, accompanied by an image of a luxury steak dinner and the words “Wonder what all the poor people are doing?”, have caused understandable upset across our communities. These remarks, whether meant privately or not, land painfully in a city where 25% of Norwich households live in income deprivation, compared with 18% nationally. Pensioner poverty levels are almost double the English average (22.8% compared with 12.9%).

These statistics are people: residents skipping meals, sitting in cold, damp homes, causing loneliness and ill-health, a reality no one should have to make in one of the UK’s most historic and vibrant cities.

Being frank, the result of poverty in Norwich is more life spent in disability and an early death by a decade. Apart from the awful human toll, its also driving higher NHS and care costs, plus taking people out of the economy, due to ill-health and need to care. None of these are a laughing matters, and along with other parts of Norfolk facing similar challenges, like Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn, political leaders have enough to be focusing on.

The joke, if there is one, is on us as a society. Poverty is our Achillies Heel, and it will continue to stifle the potential of our city and county.It hurts us as a society. It impacts our potential and costs more for the taxpayer.

With a lot of political change coming with devolution, we need to ensure the values of our political systems, irrespective of their party and ethos, are there to invoke positive change for us, as residents, as voters. Norfolk leads the way with a lot of things, but health and wellbeing of its residents is not one, prevention of ill-health and early mortality must be front-and-centre of all plans and policies, whether economic, transport, public health, housing or employment.

Perhaps the name ‘areas of deprivation’ or ‘reducing inequality areas’ underplay the relationship between our civic leadership and these locations. They suggest that they’re just places, not results of policy and decision.Maybe they should be renamed to ‘Wards of Neglect’ or ‘Deprioritised Districts’ to highlight that we have a choice, we have the ability to reduce inequality, and we can prevent ill-health and premature death.

This is why we’re calling for an Age Friendly City and we’re part of the Inclusive Norwich Partnership. Both serving underserved communities often overlooked, but ones with a huge role to play in Norwich today, and its future.