Destitution levels 'alarming' as Luton needs to 'double down' to meet wellbeing targets for 2040 strategy

Destitution levels and the consequences of Covid are a source of anxiety in Luton, despite several positive aspects of the local authority’s 2040 vision, a meeting heard.

Its target is to create a healthy, fair, and sustainable town where everyone can thrive, and nobody has to live in poverty.

A report on Luton’s population wellbeing strategy 2023 to 2028 one-year review was presented to the borough council’s health and wellbeing board.

The original strategy was around “start well, live well, age well”, LBC’s director of public health Sally Cartwright told the board.

“We’re moving away from that to make its governance clearer,” she explained. “There was a tendancy for shoehorning things into living well or ageing well, when they weren’t such a natural fit.

“This (report) shows the refreshed action plan for 2024/25 and how we’ll deliver against our new renewed focused ambitions. The Children’s Trust board, health equality town partnership and place board feed into that to drive forward those actions.”

Council chief executive Robin Porter said: “If you look across the 2040 agenda, we’re making some strong progress.

“Luton was the number one place in the country from 2010 to 2022 for private sector job creation, ahead of London. As a place, our carbon output is two thirds of the national average and reducing by three per cent year-on-year.

“Regarding population wellbeing, collectively we must look at ourselves in the mirror. We’re not making the required progress to deliver our 2040 strategy. It’s beholden on us all to be doubling down.

“There are some measures going well, such as cancer progress. But several measures aren’t heading in the right direction quickly enough.”

Deputy chief executive and corporate director population wellbeing Mark Fowler agreed, saying: “The direction of travel is worrying when you look through the dashboard.

“That’s not down to a lack of application. We have to be minded about the challenges our borough faces.

“In the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report around destitution levels nationally, we were 61st most challenged. Now we’re tenth, which is really quite alarming around structural inequality and the impact it means for people.

“Some of our demand services, with the housing issues where we are, is undermining all the other things. That has to be a real precise focus of how we execute against all of 2040.

“The number of jobs we’re getting through is brilliant. How do we give people the best housing options within that, so they stay in the borough and spend money here? It then starts to shift over time.

“I’m genuinely worried about the consequences of Covid. The cost of living manifests in somewhere such as Luton. We’ll live those experiences now.

“The demand in our care services is escalating at an alarming rate. How we all come together as a system is paramount to move that dashboard in the right area.”

Council leader and Labour Lewsey councillor Hazel Simmons, who chairs the board, added: “Also the level of pay for the jobs created.

“If it’s all minimum wage, that isn’t going to lift anyone out of poverty. So a focus on skills and developing communities is really vital.”