Read: Guest blog from Professor Martin Jones - Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Staffordshire University

As I write this blog post, I’ve just returned to the office following a wonderful Easter break with the family. 

Spring always brings a renewed sense of purpose and, frankly, after the events of the past two years the chance to get away and enjoy warmer days free of any recent restrictions can lull me into a sense that things really are getting better.  

I realise that I am one of the lucky ones. For a great number of people, despite the sunnier days and lighter evenings, life is getting harder. 

Just last month, a report co-authored by Professor David Etherington, Dr Luke Telford, and myself from Staffordshire University, alongside Simon Harris and Sam Hubbard from Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent warned of a “pending poverty catastrophe” in Stoke-on-Trent unless urgent action is taken.

The cost of living crisis continues to build with increases in energy prices, private house rental prices, food and transport costs and an increase in National Insurance from this month. This combines to form the perfect storm and constitutes the biggest cost of living crisis in recent memory.

Here in Stoke-on-Trent, the total number of families receiving food aid from the Alice Charity - Staffordshire University’s corporate charity - between January 2021 to January 2022 amounted to 1,727. The total number of families helped in 2018 and 2019 was 756, indicating a startling rise in demand for food aid. 

This picture of deprivation was partly driven by the recent removal of the £20 uplift in Universal Credit, which hit areas like North Staffordshire hard. Between September 2021 and January 2022, Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent received more than 11,500 enquires about Universal Credit, debt and other benefits and tax credits, representing 71 per cent of total enquiries.

In fairness, it hasn’t all been bad news for Stoke-on-Trent. Last month we had confirmation that the city has been granted £56 million of funding through the Levelling Up Fund, which has been tailored to make life better for residents. 

This includes £20 million to help bring vacant heritage buildings back into use. Another £20 million is destined for the City Centre Regeneration Area and plans include an indoor arena, hotel and apartments which will encourage more people to want to live, work and spend their leisure time in our local area. 

Then there is £16 million allocated for the redevelopment of Swift House in Stoke, which is exciting given its location close to Staffordshire University. Capital and Centric’s plans for the striking £60 million Goods Yard, next to Stoke-on-Trent Train Station, was among several projects showcased at real estate conference MIPIM. The £16 million from the Levelling Up Fund will be allocated to four specific elements, including dozens of high-quality apartments, office space, a hotel and water taxi stop.

All of this is fantastic for ‘Destination Stoke’ as it could be the catalyst for inward investment that will secure better quality jobs in our area. Crucially, levelling up needs to be about more than bricks and mortar.

Unless the Government addresses head-on the escalating cost of living crisis then, despite all other best intentions, more people in our city will struggle with the basics of day-to-day life. Buildings can’t provide all the foundations for Stoke-on-Trent’s everyday existence.  

The Office for National Statistics surveyed 13,000 adults between November 2021 to March 2022 and found that as many as 83 per cent saw an increase in their cost of living in March, up from 62 per cent in November. 

With utility bills on the increase and the weekly food shop costing more than before, the ONS reported that 34 per cent of respondents said they were using less gas and electricity at home. Meanwhile, 31 per cent were spending less on food.   

In the poverty report mentioned earlier, we impressed the need to take urgent action to avoid a poverty catastrophe. We pointed to recommendations we had made in an earlier report that included: 

• A job retention intervention is required urgently to replace furlough schemes including job rotation, which involves integrating skills and employment training to address skills shortages. This would be along the lines of job rotation interventions successfully developed and deployed in other countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

• Campaigns, involving local advice agencies, to ensure people know what benefits they are entitled to claim.

• Promotion of the living wage and sustainable employment in relation to inward investment policies.

• Affordable and flexible childcare is increasingly essential for parents to access work.

• As well as skills development, vast improvements are required to employment support services for disabled people to reduce the disability employment gap.

Here in Stoke-on-Trent, HE participation figures for 18-year-olds are half the national average and we fully recognise Staffordshire University’s job of being a key player in transforming lives and lifting up our local area. 

Staffordshire University can be – and is – a catalyst for change. In February we opened our new Catalyst building, a £43 million investment that brings together the delivery of apprenticeships and student skills to meet employer demand, in a flexible, high-quality, digitally enabled space. It is also the blueprint for our University’s ambitious campus transformation project.

Then, last month, we unveiled our state-of-the-art £5.8 million Centre for Health Innovation in Stafford. This Centre will build on our University’s reputation for digital innovation and includes sector-leading simulated learning environments which will be used to train healthcare and social care students and help to build on the skills of NHS staff.  

 As well as being the study base for more than 2,000 student nurses, midwives and paramedics, the Centre also offers an exciting platform for new collaborations with businesses and healthcare and technology industries.  

Professor Martin Jones

The Centre will play an important role in the future of Staffordshire University and will also be a lever to fuel the local economy by encouraging and supporting health technology start-ups, by creating jobs and by being a catalyst for economic growth in our county.  

 It was made possible through partnership working. The Centre secured £2.89 million of backing from the ‘Getting Building Fund’ through Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership. 

 As a proudly civic university we are making strong and lasting changes for the benefit of our students, staff, businesses and the community.

We are fully committed to playing our part in levelling up, but more must be done from the Government and the private sector to make lasting and substantive change. With the poverty catastrophe pending, action is needed urgently to make sure our promising Spring and Summer doesn’t transition to a long and cold Winter of discontent.