At the Sutton Council meeting on 31 March Richard set out his personal philosophy in a speech supporting the Foodbanks.

Here is what he said:

“I came in to politics as a Liberal Democrat because of a concern about the disadvantaged in society. There can be no more telling indicator of disadvantage than needing to seek help for something as basic as feeding your family.

I welcome and support the help given to those in desperate need by the foodbanks, but I feel uncomfortable with the fact that in what is still on some measures the seventh most affluent country in the World some of our families are needing to seek the help of a private charity for something as basic as food to eat, and that the foodbanks – conceived as a response to short term needs – are in danger of becoming a permanent part of the structure of welfare support in Britain.

The Council has, of course, a number of schemes to assist those who are in the most severe financial distress, including giving appropriate help to the Foodbank. Government policy has not always helped.

I am concerned with the way the Government has “localised” one of the main planks in helping those in need, the Crisis Loans and Grants Scheme. This is a scheme that assists those in real crisis situations. Many families receiving welfare support are struggling week by week and just keeping their head above water, but it can be the unexpected event that tips them over the edge – which may be into the hands of the Payday loan providers. The Crisis Loans and Grants scheme is a lifeline in these situations, and has helped over 800 individuals this year. But from the next financial year the central funding passed down when the scheme was localised is simply being axed, a cut of over £400 thousand. There is, at some point in the future, going to be a difficult debate about how the Council maintains an acceptable level of support to people in those situations.  

The Council also offers help in other ways, in particular through Discretionary Housing Payments and the Council Tax Reduction scheme.

Council officers have meetings with the organisers of the foodbank. The Council has assisted with accommodation in Apple Lodge on the Sutton Court estate, in my Ward, storage (with the Big Yellow Storage company) and with limited assistance by way of food vouchers from the Crisis Loans and Grants budget. This is because I understand the foodbank struggles to provide certain types of food, such as fresh food, as the donations are mostly of particular types of food, and they do of course want to provide a balanced diet.

The foodbank also offers debt advice to help residents manage their finances better, which is important.

We must congratulate the organisers of the foodbank on the service they are providing to our most disadvantaged residents – which may include the 600 plus households affected by the bedroom tax and the 150 plus affected by the benefit cap, locally. But we need at the same time to seek to ensure that help is given to stop families getting into the position where they need the help of the foodbank. This means continuing with the assistance we currently give, trying to protect the resources devoted to these schemes, but also seeking to help people out of this situation.

A major way of doing that is helping those out of work find jobs, for which reason our successful employment generation programmes under the banner of Opportunity Sutton are so essential. These policies must run together.”