Steve Reed, the environment secretary, is reported as saying that changes to living standards are happening, but for all too many people these are not materialising (‘We’ve made progress’: environment secretary is upbeat despite Labour’s struggles, 6 July).
In my part of inner-city Sheffield, residents are often in overcrowded and expensive housing, with energy and food bills at unaffordable levels for their precarious incomes. Our local environment is challenged by fly-tipping and vandalism, with which our austerity-struck council and services cannot keep up. A high proportion of our local residents cannot afford days out, let alone holidays when they might take their children swimming in the sea.
This doesn’t mean that people don’t want cleaner rivers and nature protection, but it does mean that increasing their trust in the government would need an end to the two-child benefit cap, employment rights for all, energy tariffs that favour low users, affordable housing and transport, and councils that can invest in things such as parks and street cleaning.
Reed seems to be living in a different world. He needs to reduce his complacency and get to grips with the living standards of the 25% of residents who live in poverty and who are not getting by.
Dr Jenny Patient
Sheffield
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