Fears over 'cost-of-living crisis' that could hit Newcastle's poorest hard as energy bills and inflation set to rise; Senior figures from Newcastle Council, regional NHS bodies and the voluntary sector fear rising energy prices could hit the city's poorest hard as 2022 progresses.
Byline: By, Sam Volpe
"People are terrified" about how a cost-of-living crisis could hit Newcastle in the coming months -and Newcastle City Council execs have warned of "red flags" suggesting inflation over the year ahead could hit the city's poorest people hard.
Leading Newcastle charity figures also joined council leader Coun Nick Forbes in highlighting their fears over he impact rising energy prices could have around the city -and health bosses worried about how this could exacerbate our already-strained mental health, too.
This comes just a day after Office for National Statistics ONS showed the North East was again the UK's worst hit area for unemployment.
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Matt Wilton, the council's director of policy, told the meeting that while there were some signs of a "buoyant" areas within the local economy, there was a "very strong likelihood" of a "cost-of-living crisis" hitting our area.
He told a meeting of the council's City Futures Board: "There's some positive news, but I think it's fair to say there are a number of red flags that are starting to wave -and we'll need to sort of track it carefully.
"Nationally, Office of National Statistics estimates that the economy is now pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels, though I think that probably masks some longer term and sort of deeper seated issues in any economy."
He said the worry was that financial difficulty would hit on the most disadvantaged groups.
Citing "inflationary pressures" and rising energy bills in particular, Mr Wilton said: "There is, it does appear, a very strong likelihood of a real sort of crisis around the cost of living due to some of those rising costs.
"There's been a recent forecast that we'll see a trebling of the number of families in fuel stress from from April and the North East will be particularly affected by that. And in our city that will particularly affect the most vulnerable in our in our communities.
"The situation that we're looking at is the fact that we know this is a very unequal economy in terms of the UK, and that's replicated here here in the city. And some of the challenges we face over the next sort of 12 months are likely to sort of fall on the most economically disadvantaged and vulnerable in the city."
Although he said some sectors of the Newcastle economy -particularly life sciences -were in strong shape, he added that high vacancy rates in retail and in social care were...
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