This is the first edition of a regular Blog I will be doing together with some of my grant giving and property colleagues from Greenham Trust.
Chris Boulton, CEO Greenham Trust
Over the last two weeks, Greenham Trust has been talking to charities and organisations on the front line of the cost-of-living crisis in West Berkshire and north Hampshire to get an understanding of what 2023 is going to look like for them and crucially what support we can provide for them during this worryingly tough time for the community we support.
CPI Inflation looks to have peaked, and the Bank of England has suggested that it is expected to return to around 4% by the end of this year. In their latest forecast, the BoE expects the path of the Bank Base Rate to rise to around 4.5% in mid-2023 and is expected to then fall back to just over 3% in three years’ time.
This means prices are going to remain high but will just be going up at a slower rate. Without any relief from mortgage rates dropping significantly in the short term then consumers are going to continue to feel the squeeze for the foreseeable future. A return to the low levels of interest enjoyed over recent years looks remote.
For the past 3 months to the end of January, both Newbury Community Resource Centre and West Berkshire Food Bank have seen record levels of demand for the support they can provide. NCRC are having to adapt Essential Household Goods Scheme to ensure they can help everyone, while the Food Bank are having to change some of their hours to evenings and weekends as they are now supporting more clients who are in paid work.
The other charities we have been in touch with are telling us they are seeing an increase in the complexity of the needs of the clients they work with. All the clients they see are struggling with household bills – particularly food and energy, increasing debt, let alone the impact this has with mental health. Some suggest these problems have now become chronic rather than relating to crisis.
All Charities we spoke to feel there are worrying warning signs but how that is going to manifest over the coming months is very unclear. So, although on the surface it could be argued there is an improving economic picture, people’s debt will continue to remain high with mortgage rates higher than the past few years and significant debt already racked up. People who are already in debt do not have a clear way out. Reliance on organisations and charities looks to remain critical for the rest of 2023 and beyond.
At the Trust we will remain in support of those front line charities who are there to help our local community. We have an ongoing appeal jointly with West Berkshire Council on our charitable giving platform, The Good Exchange where people can donate to help. We also have a fund available with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to cover similar cost of living crisis charitable needs.