Fr Alex Frost: The Shifting Sands of a Cost of Living Crisis.

Have you ever watched one of those retrospective television programmes, taking you back to the 1980’s or 1990’s? They usually include clips of Wham or Oasis or yuppies with massive mobile phones akin to Dom Joly’s ‘Trigger Happy TV’.

I don’t know about you but ‘The Cost of Living’ Trademark is one that I suspect might take its own place in one of those shows twenty or so years from now. And I do wonder if things will be better or worse than they are presently.

One would hope that whichever political party is in government in 2044, matters regarding the cost of living and poverty may have significantly shifted from where they are now.

In my own town, Burnley in Lancashire, the shifting sands are starkly evident. It is true to say that things seem to be declining rather than getting better. A recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation poverty report suggested 38% of children in Burnley presently live in poverty, the evidence of a crisis is there in the move from financial insecurity to crises in many other areas of life as we drop into the harshest months of the year.

One such is the rise in worrying mental health issues in our community, amongst adults and some very young children. On a personal level, there is nothing more painful than taking a funeral service for a young person who has taken their own life, which has happened to me in my own ministry in recent months. Alongside such sadnesses are almost daily examples of individuals, many of whom are young mothers pouring their hearts out on social media with woes of poor mental health with seemingly nowhere to turn. In my own borough the mental support provision within the NHS is at breaking point with long delays for mental health counselling and support. Thank goodness for the voluntary sector who help me to help others on a regular basis. Post Covid-19, it feels as though we are in a battle to keep our most vulnerable people mentally well, with an optimistic outlook for a brighter future.

And then there is homelessness. Who would have imagined we would be living in a time when people are now being evicted from a tent? And what about those who have lived outside for many years? What are we to do for them? There is a chap in Burnley who ‘by choice’ is living rough behind our corporation cemetery, because in the hostel addiction and violence are commonplace. The only blessing is that he seems to have found a warm spot where he is relatively safe against the winter elements that are coming our way. This gentleman cites places of ‘refuge’ on offer as dangerous, violent, and volatile – not in keeping with his desire to live a quiet and normal life that perhaps befits someone in his late fifties.

And as the sands shift what about our young people? In the school where I am a governor, 58% of our children are on free school meals, and many come from homes with relational strife and difficult circumstances. What encouragement can we give them to ensure their young lives are ones of opportunity, fun and learning? What can we do to ensure the struggles of the children’s parents don’t consign them to an uncertain and worrying future? Some parents in the context of a community in the grip of a cost of living crisis lose their filter on vocabulary and so every worry, concern, disappointment and crisis is shared with little boys and girls who shouldn’t be constantly subjected to a world that is constantly churning out negative scenarios.

As a nation we celebrate the culture of food banks and community kitchens, and all they do for the poor people of our parishes. Three cheers for the voluntary sector that takes the strain of a failing social security system, giving food with one hand but snatching self-worth with the other. Watching young mums literally gathering up the crumbs from our food provisions at church is a chastening and humiliating experience for them and those who serve them. I hate foodbanks. Not because of the good they clearly do, but because they normalise the failure of our social safety net.

As we approach Christmas and a new year, I wonder how the shifting sand of the cost of living crisis might influence our cultural horizon. Is it idealistic, romantic or downright stupid to think we might change the ‘great and mighties’ to think differently about poverty? I am a keen football fan, familiar with the term ‘he/she talks a good game’. After many years following Burnley Football Club, I have witnessed many occasions when managers have ‘talked a good game’ but sadly failed to deliver on the field. And I think that is true of the majority of our politicians and political parties. They can talk a good game but often fail to impress us because the substance doesn’t match their words.

I am convinced, through many years of dealing with sometimes abject poverty, that people in difficulty prefer compassion over criticism; understanding over instruction; reality over rhetoric. So many people in my context don’t want to be in poverty, they would prefer not to struggle, and they would recognise they need help. Their desire to more than survive should encourage society to prioritise people over the pedestrianisation of town centres, and hope over HS2 railway lines. As the sands of our landscape continue to shift, it surely must be the priority of the church, the government, and our people to find a way to prevent others from sinking in a swell of hardship. When it does that, perhaps the church more clearly demonstrates its role and its mission – with much still to offer in 2024 and beyond.

Alex Frost is the Vicar of St Matthew’s Burnley, and host of ‘The God Cast’. His new book. ‘Our Daily Bread, from Argos to the Altar’ is OUT NOW.