Life Beyond Debt

Speech from Hazel Blears MP  

Thank you for that introduction, and thank you for the kind invitation to speak today.

Two weeks ago I was in a synagogue near Marble Arch at a memorial service for victims of the Holocaust. I was deeply moved to be asked to give a reading. The reading was from Isaiah 2.  The day will come, says Isaiah, when there will be peace between nations. We will walk in the paths of the Lord.  We will “beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruning hooks.” 

I thought about that as I was preparing for today, because it speaks to us about the essence of faith. Even in the darkest times, faith endures. It gives hope.  Jesus knew exactly the kind of challenges people are facing today. Times were tough for the people he lived with and whether it was in his parables or who he met, practical matters of work, money and food were never far from his thoughts and actions. And in every story and encounter he always brought hope.

And I think that quality is one of the reasons why faith-based charities have such a vital role to play as we face today’s economic challenges. 

This crisis has international roots, but it is biting hard in streets and estates all across this country.

People are worried about their job, worried about keeping a roof over their family’s heads, with unemployment creeping towards 2m and repossessions at their highest in a decade.

The price of petrol has risen, then fallen dramatically over the past year. The price of food has been volatile. It has been hard for families to plan their finances, and it is hard to say when this uncertainty might end.

There is no bigger priority for this Government than giving people the practical help they need.

We are working with partners in the US and Europe to restore confidence in the banking system. 

We are listening to business to help them keep supporting jobs and investment.

We are working closely with mortgage lenders so that people have a little more time to stay in their home and sort out their affairs when the worst happens.

And we are challenging and supporting local government as they deal with the fallout at a local level:

• providing benefits and retraining
• keeping the streets clean and safe
• making sure anxiety doesn’t lead to conflict between different communities

But for every action that Government takes, there are local charities taking thousands of their own.

These are the nurseries providing childcare, the community groups tending communal gardens, the helplines lending a sympathetic ear to the lonely and distressed.  When times are hard they come into their own.  Some of those outstanding people working in those organisations are motivated by their faith. Some of the organisations themselves have a religious ethos.

I’ve often found that churches, synagogues and mosques are the places where communities first get organised, the most forceful advocates for their neighbourhoods, and the most steadfast in rocky times when other organisations might falter.

In my own constituency I think in particular of Salford Central Church. Recently it became part of the Oasis group. It is redoubling its work with the community - with everything from a drop-in centre, to a café, to sports teams for the young.

Giving local people a place to go, sound advice about money and health, positive things to do with their spare time. 

Religious charities deserve to be recognised for their astonishing work, no matter how big or small they may be, whether they’re:

• Household names such as The Salvation Army, Churches Against Poverty, Church Action on Poverty - each of whom is represented here today.
• Churches ministering in the inner city.
• Or the one or two dedicated souls working on estate somewhere whose efforts make all the difference.

All heeding James’s advice: that “faith without works is dead.” All offering not just warm words, but a safe place to sleep for the homeless, or a helping hand for the elderly.

And able to reach society’s vulnerable and excluded in a way that few other organisations can rival.  

The Evangelical Alliance should be applauded for organising today’s conference that is very much in that tradition of active faith. By making a commitment to offer the practical advice about family budgeting and debt management, the churches and groups here today can make a great difference to their neighbourhood. 

There’s a welcome emphasis on the practical: I know you’ll be hearing from Care for the Family about their “Quidz In” programme, helping give parents the tools they need to talk about finances with their kids.

But I also recognise the new challenges and strains that many faith-based groups are facing today. Some may be finding it harder to raise funds.  Others may be seeing a greater call for their services, more people they want to help. 

We’re wasting something very precious if we overlook the contribution faith groups make.  So I want to make sure Government is listening, and doing what it can to provide support.

First, at a national level, we will keep listening - through the Faith Communities Consultative Council - about the challenges that religious groups see in the society around them. We are also inviting faith groups to be part of the conversation about how we can come through this crisis with a world economy that is not just stronger, but fairer and greener too.

On 2 April a summit here in London will bring together leaders of the world’s richest countries, emerging economies and the big international banks.  They will be making decisions about debt, markets, and the reform of international financial institutions, which have the potential to affect billions of people’s lives for years to come.  Make sure they hear your voice about the kind of world you want to live in.

Second, Government will soon be bringing forward a package of measures to help the third sector as a whole keep up their great work in tough conditions. This help will not pass faith groups by: they will have a chance to compete and take part on an equal footing.

Third, at a local level, we recognise that religious groups have not always got their fair share of public money.

In the past, some local authorities - from ignorance, or mistrust - have fought shy of working with religious groups or commissioning services from them.  Not all, I hasten to add.

In Manchester Church Action on Poverty have worked closely with the council to promote participatory budgeting, giving people a real say in their neighbourhood.  This kind of partnership needs to be possible everywhere in the future.  Some of this is in religious groups’ hands.

I welcome Churches Together in England’s current work, with other faith communities, to develop training for local authority employees, so they understand faith better.  Government can do its share too.

 The Government Office for the North West recently ran a course in Manchester on faith understanding for its staff that was so well received that a further course is being planned for the Liverpool Office.  It is hoped that staff from Liverpool City Council will be involved too.

And we are starting a conversation about a “charter of excellence.” The charter would mean faith groups who are paid public money to provide services promising to provide those services to everyone, regardless of their background.

And promising not to use public money to proselytise.

There’s a balance to be struck here.

It’s not about trying to stop the people manning the soup kitchens or making the home visits talking about their faith if people ask, or being open about what motivates them.

It is about making sure that services funded by public money are unconditional - clearly and unequivocally so - with “no strings attached.”  Obviously we need a discussion about how we get that balance right.

 I hope that many of the people here will be part of that debate in the months to come.

 But when we have the charter ready - and I hope that will be by the end of this year - it will give local authorities everywhere the confidence to work with faith groups, overcoming any fear and reluctance they might once have had.

I want to end where I started.  On hope.

The Bible has a lot to say about hope: Paul rates it as one of the three defining qualities of Christian life, alongside faith and love. But in one of the most powerful passages of the whole New Testament, Paul writes to the Christians in Rome that “our present sufferings are nothing in comparison to our future glory” and that “the whole of creation waits in eager hope that all will be set free from decay and enjoy the freedom promised to God’s children.”

Faith gives hope in the future. There is a difficult path ahead. But get through it we will: and all the communities you work in, and all the people you help, will be that much stronger for having you at their shoulder.

Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP,
Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government