Tag: north-east

Bishop of Newcastle calls for greater support for families and kinship carers in debate on children in local authority care

The Bishop of Newcastle spoke in a debate on the number of children in local authority care in the UK on 18th April 2024, highlighting the large numbers of children in care in the North-East of England and the need for stronger support for kinship carers:

The Lord Bishop of Newcastle: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Laming, for securing this timely debate, and particularly the noble Lord, Lord Meston, for his remarks just now, with which I strongly agree. Yesterday afternoon I attended the launch of the Child of the North APPG’s report, Children in Care in the North of England, and heard the compelling testimony of two young women, Rebekah and Kirsty, whose lives have been impacted by experiences in the care system.

The number of children entering local authority care is increasing nationally, but the north of England persistently records the highest rates of children in care. Local authorities bear the financial burden, with their budgets increasingly directed towards often unregulated private residential care providers, as other noble Lords have referred to, rather than long-term investment supporting families before they reach crisis point; a child in trouble can also be a family in trouble. We have a cycle in which cuts lead to reduced preventive services, resulting in more children entering care and budgets further spent on crisis intervention. As the Child of the North APPG heard yesterday from Amy Van Zyl, CEO of the Newcastle-based charity REFORM, there is a critical need for liberated methods of tackling systemic issues rather than overregulation, which can result in silo working, and a full recognition that deep-rooted issues of poverty are a major factor in the alarming statistics behind which are the lives of real people.

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Bishop of Durham asks about banking in the north-east of England

The Bishop of Durham asked a question on the rate of new banking hubs, and the effects of the diminishing number of post offices in the north-east of England, during a debate on bank branch closures and the opening of new hubs on 11th December 2023:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that last answer. However, in the north-east, only one banking hub has been opened this year and there is a diminishing number of post offices, so it is quite hard to see how the post office network is actually helping in the north-east.

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Bishop of Durham asks about government support for the electric car battery industry

The Bishop of Durham asked a question on government financial support for a site producing electric car batteries on 23rd January 2023, following a statement on the company Britishvolt entering administration:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, the Minister loves the north-east, just like I do, and has noted that this is an extremely suitable site. Is not part of the problem that the return on investment is a very long way forward, so will the Government consider upping the amount they are willing to commit upfront to enable production on this site?

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Bishop of Durham asks about investment in the north-east of England

During a debate on Levelling Up on 23rd January 2023, the Bishop of Durham asked whether how much of the investment promised to the north-east of England will be new funds:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I welcome the new devolution deal that has been done for the north-east and look forward to the appointment of an elected mayor for the region. If this devolution deal goes ahead, which I trust it will, can His Majesty’s Government clarify what proportion of the estimated £4.2 billion of investment into the region will be truly new money that the local new mayor can allocate out?

Lord Lexden (Con): I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question and I will have to give him a written answer: I do not have that information on the north-east devolution deal.

Hansard

Bishop of Durham asks about child poverty in the North East of England

The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers of 19th December 2022:

The Lord Bishop of Durham asked His Majesty’s Government:

  •  further to the Department for Work and Pensions annual official statistics ‘Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021’, what assessment they have made of the reasons for the increase in (1) the number of, and (2) the proportion of, children living in relative poverty in every local authority area of the North East between 2014/15 and 2020/21.
  •  further to the Department for Work and Pensions official statistics ‘Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021’, what assessment they have made of the reasons for the increase in (1) the number of, and (2) the proportion of, children living in absolute poverty in every local authority area of the North East in every year since 2017/18.
  • what recent discussions have taken place between the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on child poverty.
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Bishop of Durham speaks in a debate on GCSE and A-Level Results: Attainment Gap

On 8th September 2022, the Bishop of Durham spoke in a debate on the attainment gap in exam results, regarding children in North East England:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I begin by expressing, on behalf of these Benches, our concern for Her Majesty, and the assurance of our thoughts and prayers for her and the Royal Family.

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for securing this debate and pay tribute to the way she has stood up for the young people of the north-east throughout her distinguished career. I declare my interests as chair of the National Society and the Durham Diocesan Board of Finance.

I begin by celebrating the success of our young people and their teachers, particularly those of the north-east, in the recent A-level and GCSE examination results in both schools and further education colleges. However, we cannot hide away from the gap between the north and the south of England—the stats have already been quoted, so I will not repeat them. The most recent figures continue to show that disadvantaged communities in the north continue to be hit hardest by the Covid pandemic and its impact on learning. Poverty is in every north-east postcode and is set to worsen. Headlines include, for example:

“In 2020/21, the North East overtook London to have the highest rate of child poverty in the UK, at 38%”.

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Bishop of Durham asks about shipbuilding in the north-east of England

The Bishop of Durham asked a question regarding shipbuilding in the north-east of England on 15th March 2022, in response to a statement on the national shipbuilding strategy:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, if I may return to the glorious infographic—figure 1 of the National Shipbuilding Strategy—and wear my north-east hat very strongly at this point, the only north-east reference I could find in the entire document was a little star on the map, yet the north-east at one time was the great shipbuilding hub of the United Kingdom. What affirmation can the Minister give to the continuing shipbuilding work and ship repair work in the north-east and its desire to further expand for the future? Where does steel fit into that? I do not think the Minister answered the question from the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, about steel.

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Bishop of Newcastle makes valedictory speech on economic planning and issues arising from the government’s budget

On 3rd November 2021, the Bishop of Newcastle gave her valedictory speech in the House of Lords, raising issues of economic planning and the impact of the government’s budget on poorer communities, and paying tribute to the North-East of England:

The Lord Bishop of Newcastle: My Lords, these past six years during which I have served as Bishop of Newcastle and as a Member of your Lordships’ House have, in a good way, been the most extraordinary years of my life. After a lifetime of living in the south, these six years in the north-east have helped me to see things from a different and much richer perspective.

The usual way to assess a Budget, the one we see in the newspapers, is to identify the winners and losers. I want strongly to resist this approach. When, aeons ago, I studied for my degree in economics, I learned that the way we spend our money shows what we value, what really matters to us. The question that matters is not what will I or we get out of this, but what kind of values does this Budget embrace—what is the moral framework undergirding it?

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Bishop of Durham asks about investment in rail services in the north-east of England

On 15th July 2021, the Bishop of Durham asked a question on government plans to improve rail services in the north-east of England, following a discussion on frequency of services on the east coast mainline network:

The Lord Bishop of Durham: My Lords, I declare an interest as a regular LNER user. I have a lot of sympathy with the noble Lord, Lord Beith. I recognise that connections from Darlington, Durham and Newcastle are northwards as well as southwards. Will the Minister comment on how local services such as those from Bishop Auckland to Middlesbrough and the possible reopening of Durham to Sunderland need to be invested in for the economic growth of the north-east as a whole?

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Bishop of Newcastle asks Government about coastal communities in the North East

On 13 July the Rt Revd Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle, received a written answer to a question from Lord Greenhalgh on the Coastal Communities Fund.

Lord Bishop of Newcastle: HL6244 To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the Coastal Communities Fund has been spent since 2012 on regions (1) in the North East of England, and (2) north of the River Tyne in England.

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