Champions Programme Launched to Help Low Income Tees Valley and County Durham Households
A new initiative aimed at helping people from across the Tees Valley and County Durham areas to gain wider access to improved financial services and advice has been launched by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Fabrick Housing Group.
The partnership has appointed a team of Financial Inclusion Champions to work with organisations to help people as the current economic climate hits hard at all levels of our society.
The financial inclusion champions will work with local partners to make sure local people, in particular those from low-income households, have access to basic financial services, such as safe saving, bank accounts, money advice, home contents insurance and affordable credit.
The launch event at the Wynyard Rooms introduced delegates from across County Durham and the Tees Valley to the team for the area – Ross Hume and Linda Evans – and explored how, by sharing expertise and commitment, financial exclusion could be addressed.
Ross brings 19 years of experience in the financial sector to the post of Strategic Financial Inclusion Champion, while Linda, the Financial Inclusion Champion, has most recently worked as a financial inclusion project coordinator.
As well as Linda and Ross, the event heard from Gary Lumby, Head of Personal Financial Services at the Yorkshire Bank, who talked about his sector’s perspective on financial inclusion. Also speaking at the event were Lisa Fearn, manager of Erimus Housing’s Tandem Project, which helps tenants to handle money matters, and Paul Burton, financial inclusion team leader at the Five Lamps Organisation who spoke about the availability of affordable credit.
Ross said: “Linda and I have spent a few weeks settling into our roles now and assessing the scale of the job at hand and now it is time for us to start getting out there and developing the relationships we have begun to build so that a real start can be made.
“There is a lot of good work going on across County Durham and the Tees Valley and now we can really get our teeth into it, working alongside these partners and making a real difference to the lives of people who live here and suffer from financial exclusion.”
The financial inclusion champions will work with local partners to make sure local people, in particular those from low-income households, have access to basic financial services, such as safe saving, bank accounts, money advice, home contents insurance and affordable credit.
The launch event at the Wynyard Rooms introduced delegates from across County Durham and the Tees Valley to the team for the area – Ross Hume and Linda Evans – and explored how, by sharing expertise and commitment, financial exclusion could be addressed.
Ross brings 19 years of experience in the financial sector to the post of Strategic Financial Inclusion Champion, while Linda, the Financial Inclusion Champion, has most recently worked as a financial inclusion project coordinator.
As well as Linda and Ross, the event heard from Gary Lumby, Head of Personal Financial Services at the Yorkshire Bank, who talked about his sector’s perspective on financial inclusion. Also speaking at the event were Lisa Fearn, manager of Erimus Housing’s Tandem Project, which helps tenants to handle money matters, and Paul Burton, financial inclusion team leader at the Five Lamps Organisation who spoke about the availability of affordable credit.
Ross said: “Linda and I have spent a few weeks settling into our roles now and assessing the scale of the job at hand and now it is time for us to start getting out there and developing the relationships we have begun to build so that a real start can be made.
“There is a lot of good work going on across County Durham and the Tees Valley and now we can really get our teeth into it, working alongside these partners and making a real difference to the lives of people who live here and suffer from financial exclusion.”
