Debate contribution: Poverty: North Down
Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on .
- MLA
- Mr Alan Chambers
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 9 December 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- Poverty: North Down
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5296617
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, 'Poverty in Northern Ireland 2025', provides important insight into the scale and impact of poverty across Northern Ireland. One of the most striking findings is that the:
"majority of people in poverty now live in working households".
It found that 60% of working-class adults in poverty live in houses in which someone is in work. That figure rises to 64% for children. Put simply, employment alone is no longer a guarantee of financial security. That reality applies in North Down as it does elsewhere, albeit often in less visible ways. As others have said, North Down is often referred to as the "gold coast". Undoubtedly, many prosperous families, who have worked hard to secure financial stability, live in comfort in my constituency. There are, however, areas of serious deprivation where the damaging effects of poverty can be seen. Behind the curtains of many seemingly prosperous homes, the issue of balancing the family budget is very real. In 2017-18, Bangor Foodbank and Community Support distributed 634 emergency food parcels. In 2024-25, that figure has risen to a staggering 2,569. For that to happen, something in our society must not be working. It is not just food poverty that is an affliction in North Down. Fuel poverty provides challenges across all sections of the community, from young families to pensioners who struggle to heat their entire home to the recommended, comfortable levels. The cost of energy has risen at rates that do not equate to the rise in income. The cost of private rentals and the disgraceful lack of affordable social housing is making a huge dent in family incomes. Providing a roof over their heads means that a family has less income available to heat or eat. Another group of people who are largely forgotten but who have a daily struggle to make ends meet is the army of unpaid carers, a group that not only faces financial challenges but, in many cases, is deprived of any level of social life or respite self-time. All the issues I have spoken of are not purely financial. Cold homes, financial stress and insecurity can harm physical and mental health and increase social isolation. Even the shame of poverty can seriously lower self-esteem and extinguish hope in people. Addressing poverty, therefore, supports better health outcomes and can reduce pressure on public services, and tackling poverty cannot rest with one Department alone. While the Department for Communities has the lead role in addressing poverty in all its forms, the pressure faced by people requires coordinated action, as others have said, across the Executive, including housing, health, energy, employment and infrastructure. I commend the Minister for Communities for attending tonight to listen to the debate. Finally, as my colleague Andy Allen has done in previous debates, I acknowledge the work that the Minister has undertaken in progressing the long-overdue anti-poverty strategy. However, I also recognise the widespread concern amongst sector experts about its current strength and delivery, and I look forward to seeing how the feedback from sector experts is factored into the final iteration of the strategy so that it delivers practical and measurable improvements for individuals and families in North Down and across Northern Ireland. I join other Members in expressing my appreciation and thanks to all the voluntary organisations in North Down that help to deal with poverty. One in particular that I was unaware of until recently is the Kiltonga Christian Centre, which operates under the radar. Without those charities, things would be an awful lot worse, so we owe them a huge debt.
598 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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