Families hit by debt crisis, warns bishop
May 1 2008 by William Green, The Journal
THE Bishop of Newcastle has demanded action against the “social evils” of inequality and poverty, claiming the city’s poor families are forced to borrow from loan sharks to cope.
The Right Rev Martin Wharton said 14 lending firms operated across the city as he stressed improving education offered the way out of poverty.
Speaking in the Lords, he said new education buildings were important and praised the Government’s academies programme as helping to foster a “Billy Elliot” factor in students to succeed.
The bishop warned some families could not provide basic necessities of food and warmth despite Government efforts, forcing them into the clutches of doorstep lenders.
“Last week, I talked to someone who said, ‘You know, Bishop, you continue to pay the loan shark even when you don’t owe him anything, because you never know when you might need to use him again’.”
“On one estate in Newcastle, 87% of 142 households were paying doorstep lenders an average of one-third of their total weekly income.”
He backed the Archbishop of Canterbury in calling for more credit unions, tighter regulation of doorstep lending and more financial education.
The bishop said poverty and inequality in Newcastle were higher than the national average, with a third of state school children in out-of-work families which affected educational outcomes.
But providing the “very best” education offered a route out with the Church of England transforming two “failing” schools in the city, he said.
The schools were merged into the All Saints College with the Church having to provide pupils with a pair of black shoes and school uniform.
He said the school day was changed, attendance and rules enforced, with Christian values underlining everything.
“No one had ever been to university from either of the previous schools. Six years on, through the sheer dedication, skill and hard work of the head teacher and staff, to whom I pay the most enormous of tributes, the sixth form now has 120 students.
The first four students went to university last year and, all being well, 16 will go this year,” said the bishop.
He urged the Government, charities, councils, churches and faith groups to work together to tackle economic inequality, poverty and debt.
“Those social evils demand the best efforts of all of us to overcome them,” he added.
