Transcription
Give us an idea how rough it is. Well, the seagulls got flick knives, it's that rough. Queen's Beach has got issues. Everyone's got issues. Society, like, um, no one could afford feeding themselves. Government police cars up and down the streets. There was a murder down that end of the street a couple of years back, so it's not got the best reputation. They're getting things like, uh, Universal Credit, and they're also getting the cost of living pay, and they're going out and spending it on, uh, maybe alcohol and substances. We had a stabbing that next door to me, and a few doors down, I had, um, arrests with petrol bombs.
Grimsby, for hundreds of years, this port town in Northeast Lincolnshire on the River Humber Estuary, punched well above its weight. Its fishing industry became known around the world. 285, 90, 90, 280 a keel out. And at one point, the town became the largest and busiest fishing port on Earth. But after the industry started falling, poverty came next. And with the fish gone, the town changed with job losses, low wages, and a lack of infrastructure. Today, average annual household incomes in the town's East Marsh are the lowest of anywhere in England and Wales, making it the poorest part of the country.
These flags represent our country. In TAS, this is real Britannia. It's a weekday morning on Grimsby's East Marsh estate, where residents are beginning their day in the poorest part of the nation. Of course, that's not to say everyone here is living on the poverty line, but the data is striking. The average annual income for an entire household here sits at just £22,000 a year. That's over £10 grand less than the UK national average, and almost a staggering £86,000 below London's affluent Clapham area, which has the highest in the country at just above £108,000.
It's in East Marsh where we meet Natalie, who lives in the center of the estate with her partner and four children. She receives around £22,000 a month in benefits, but as she begins her shopping with Christmas on the way, she's struggling to make ends meet. "I get tight, well, especially this time of year. I get tight on my budget. I'll make sure my bills and I've done my big shop, and then whatever's left, I get a little bits, obviously my Christmas presents and my son's birthday present. Birthday stuff. At the moment, I'm not one of these with loads and loads of money where you can just spend it every day and just go and do big shoppings. I get quite a few benefits at the moment 'cause I'm classed just one of the boys. Carers 'cause one of them is disabled. So, um, I start to get my Christmas presents and I've done my shopping online, which is a lot cheaper than in shops."
And Natalie isn't alone. Up and down the country, the cost of living has hit homes and families hard, with the price of energy rising by up to 60% in the last two years. And those rises are felt acutely here. Single mom Cheryl lives in a property that's covered in black mold and infested with mice, but turning up the heating means less money for her and the kids. "It is very difficult. I've got, like I said, four kids, and then I'm trying to keep on top of mold, mice, and condensation windows because I've got that one and my bathroom windows the same as well. So, it, it is difficult. I've got my heating on all day, every day because obviously with the condensation, it means the heat's escaping, so my house is colder than what it should be. So I'm paying more on my gas and electric than I should be per week just to keep the house warm, to keep my kids warm. It is, it is very tight, yeah. I mean, I make sure my kids have always got what they need, but yeah, it's definitely, it can be a struggle. It feels awful, you know. I've got the kids coming up to me, you know, 'We need to sort the mold out in the room again, Mommy,' or 'We've just seen a mouse run across the floor, Mommy.' You know, it's, it's not pleasant."
Stories like this are sadly nothing new for Grimsby, and especially the East Marsh. The area is the most deprived across the whole of Northeast Lincolnshire, and nearly every street is in the top 1% of deprivation across the country. It's become associated with higher levels of crime, antisocial behavior, and homelessness, something visible all over Grimsby. "I want somewhere to live. I want somewhere to go. I want to work, but I'm just finding it hard. How long have you been living on the streets for now?" "And what's that?" "Hell, that's just about it, really."
Residents here are aware of the problems, and sometimes help from within the community can come from the unlikeliest of sources. With the lowest incomes in the country, it's perhaps no surprise that the nation's cheapest chippy is right here in East Marsh, where a portion of fish and chips with a side of peas will set you back only £3. UK fish and chip prices have soared in recent years, with the classic takeaway now setting customers back £9 on average. But at Matthew's chippy on East Marsh Stanley Street, owner Stan Matthews explains how he keeps his prices at rock bottom. "Because I'm down on the docks, we buy our own fish, uh, we smoke, we've got our own smokehouse, um, so it all comes in line where we can get that product a bit cheaper. Saying that, they, they have gone up. We, we used to be £2.50, but because light gas has gone up, electric's gone up, um, the, like, every, all the raw materials are gone up, so we have to raise it by 50p. So, so £3, you're still getting a good meal for £3."
With prices like this, and with a community in need, he serves plenty of punters every day who queue outside the door even before it opens. "Some every night of the week, and the product is well received, including by me. Three quid fish and chips, I mean, that's a steal, isn't it? It's, it's great for us pensioners. Every, every penny counts, don't it? Three quid, you can't knock it, can you? I come here, um, oh, every, every time for, uh, fish and chips. The portion you get is brilliant, absolutely amazing. It's quality, good meal. You can't buy a burger for £3, than you there." "There's not a lot of money in it. We, we earn enough just to pay, like, the mortgage, um, the gas, electric, that's about it. But we're feeding people, that's, that's the way I look at it. People are coming in and they're getting warm meals."
Yet cheap takeaways alone aren't going to solve the issues facing Grimsby. While the cost of living crisis has exacerbated things, the challenges for the town are deep-rooted. "Are the needs here, yeah, greater than anywhere else in the country when it comes to Citizens Advice?" "They, they echo them. They, I think that's space, isn't it? Yeah, got to be, yeah." Tony Gascoin runs Citizens Advice for Northeast Lincolnshire and says more people are using his service than ever before. "The last three years, we've seen something like a 300% increase in emergency, uh, charitable support, such as food bank applications, fuel and energy vouchers, uh, people needing help with homelessness. So, around about 300% is, is, is a massive figure, but it's, and it's really worrying. We're seeing an even bigger percentage increase for Personal Independence Payment and, and, and around about a 200% increase in council tax areas, and worryingly, about another 220% on, on, uh, energy debts."
"What is it that drives places like East Marsh, West Marsh to be so poor compared to other parts of the country?" "I think we're looking at a number of factors. We're looking at, but people have, uh, are in part-time employment, people in long-term, uh, unemployment, people with high, high percentages in Eastern and West Marsh with people with long-term disabilities and struggle to get to find work. Where they do find work, then they're limited by the number of hours that they work. Uh, people got struggling with with fuel costs because, uh, 19, pre-1919 properties that are difficult to heat, difficult to insulate. So there's a raft of problems, but there's also a really engaged, um, infrastructure trying to bring people out of poverty in Northeast Lincolnshire and particularly in these two wards, and the work that's going on is remarkable. Uh, but the, the challenges that individuals face is, is huge."
So, what's the best solution? Well, it depends who you ask, and some members of the public have different ideas to the experts about what's causing these issues. "I was talking to two young lads the other day, and they was on about the cost of living. I said, 'You should have lived through the ages then, you would have known what the cost of living was.' But it's a different generation now, is it? They won't tolerate low wages and bad work. Anybody could walk into a job and now because of, um, how can I say this, family tax credit, people realize they don't have to work anymore, so they don't. They take advantage of it. A lot of people won't work because the work and the wages are often, and, and working. So, I know people will say, 'Well, that's a load of rubbish,' but I spoke to people and says, 'Well, I'm not working. The time I paid me rent, paid me council tax, there's no paid me gas, electric, no to get food in.'"
"If you look at the, at the figures, there has been no inflationary increase to benefits for 10 years, other than the one last year. And in real terms, people on benefits now are about 25% worse off than they were in 2010. With a cost of living increase, as it hits, then that just exacerbates that problem and makes it more severe and makes it more difficult to manage. And in the interim, in the short term, increasing benefits by the rate of inflation is the right thing to do."
But with a quarter of people in the area classed as economically inactive as of March 2023, how did this once prosperous town find itself in this situation? Grimsby's fishing heritage stretches back over a thousand years, and by the mid-20th century, it had reached its peak when over 500 trawlers a day would leave these shores in search of a catch. Then the Cod Wars happened. "It seems that the countries that are barring us from the fishing grounds which have traditionally been ours are standing back now and taking America, laughing at us."
Between 1950 and 1976, the Cod Wars were a series of disputes between Britain and Iceland which changed Grimsby and British fishing forever. UK vessels had been fishing in Icelandic waters since the 14th century, but after the tiny country gained independence from Denmark, things changed. Iceland expanded the area other countries could fish from its coastline from four nautical miles to an area eventually 50 times that size. While the industry was already in retreat, these moves, along with a decline in cod population, decimated British fishing. And the EU's Common Fisheries Policy in 1983, which brought in additional restrictions and quotas, became the final nail in the coffin. Thousands of British fishermen lost their jobs as a result, but had to wait until the year 2000 before the government paid out any compensation for the pain caused.
At Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre, retired trawlermen still get together once a week to share stories about how they risked their lives to put fish on British plates. "The young ones of today are struggling because there isn't the work for them anymore. 85 to 90% of people in Grimsby had something to do with the fishing industry, and it hit everybody hard, and I think that's why we're like that now. In Grimsby, we were overfishing. If you saw a farmer go around shooting his cattle, when any young say, 'What's happened?' 'This bloody lunatic!' And we were catching fish with a rose and, uh, rose. And it's breaking my heart in the spring season because the short fish came on the shores, and I thought, 'Why don't we stop?' And the end was, 'Fish! Let's fish! Let's fish! Let's fish!' It used to be great Grimsby. When fishing was going, I had two families. I had a family at sea, and I had a family at home. Grimsby to me has gone downhill these days."
There are barely any homegrown trawlers left in Grimsby's iconic docks, but that doesn't mean the industry is dead. Produce from Scotland, Iceland, the Faroes, and Norway is sold and processed here instead, before being shipped around the UK. And at the crack of dawn, we get a glimpse of what Grimsby's fishing heritage looks like in the 21st century. "Morning. Morning. Right, the straight in then, gents. Again, then. 275, 80, 270 a kilo. 270."
Here at the Grimsby Fish Market, traders say they used to shift about 7,000 boxes a day. Now they're lucky if they hit 7,000 a week. Despite the change in fishing fortunes, the market CEO, Martin Boes, takes a more philosophical view and is far more upbeat than most when it comes to Grimsby's future. "The industry is, is quite complex, and what we've managed to do in Grimsby is to be able to diversify. So, as you've seen today with some of these vessels, we're not just a fishing port anymore. We're also an offshore wind farm port, so what's called an operations and maintenance port. And that diversification has allowed us to continue with the Grimsby Fish Market, even at that smaller level, as you rightly point out. But like a lot of things, it's, it's not like it used to be, but it's still here. We're still busy. People still eat fish. It's a good protein, uh, and there's still a good demand for it."
"What does the future look like? Are you hopeful that things will get better for Grimsby?" "I think it's a great opportunity, and what we've got to do is actually get that message over to the young people, in particular, in a place like Grimsby, that there's a lot of jobs available in fish processing. It's not about going to sea. People just think, you know, if you didn't do any good at school, you can always go to sea. That was all right in the 1960s, but that's gone."
But it wasn't supposed to be like this. 70% of people in Grimsby voted to leave the EU in 2016, and it was hoped that Brexit would help change the future of Britain's fishermen. "It's an opportunity here to look at one of the ways in which this country will be able to take back control of a massive industry. Our coastal waters go out 200 miles, and there's a potential to do really well for, for UK fishing." Martin says it hasn't quite worked out that way, but he doesn't regret his vote to leave the EU. "It was never as simple, uh, toward us in the industry, certainly to me, as it was portrayed to the Great British public. And one of the things you find about the fish industry is that when it's, when it's the election, is that economically, in terms of GDP, it's very, very small, but in terms of emotion, it's very, very high. So I just thought it was a bit of a bandwagon and a bit of a cheap trick, actually."
Back in London, we caught up with the Conservative MP for Grimsby, Lia Nici. She's positive the town is far better off outside the EU and that any damage had already been done. "Well, let's be clear, 70% of people in Grimsby wanted Brexit. You know, undoubtedly, we're a Brexit town, and people wanted to be free of the EU. But people didn't make that decision based on business, they based that on wanting to be a sovereign country. You know, when I talk to people about that, that's undoubtedly they say, 'Yes, we know that there are going to be pros and cons with being part of the EU or not being part of the EU.' Now, there's this big misnomer of people who don't come from Grimsby that think that we've got some amazing fishing industry and that Brexit has been terrible for us. Well, let me tell you, the fishing industry died the day that we joined the Common Market."
"What do you do to try to stem the losses that we hear about from business leaders in Grimsby who said before the vote, before Britain left the European Union, it was so much easier to do business and actually it was easier to generate profits for Grimsby?" "I've worked hard to make sure that people can see a different kind of MP. I've been out there, I've been working with people on practical projects, helping to them to succeed in areas. You know, East Marsh has been one of the poorest areas in the UK for five decades or more. Um, it's not something that's going to be fixed quickly. All I can say is I'm working hard, making sure I can do the best that I can to, to really be noisy for Grimsby, and I have been. I've been at the center of government making sure Grimsby is being represented."
Great Grimsby had been a Labour seat in every election since 1945, making up part of the so-called Red Wall that crumbled to the Tories in 2019. Those we spoke to weren't completely sold on their relatively new MP, but with a general election just around the corner, there wasn't much appetite for Labour either. "The, uh, local area MP, have you seen much of her?" "Never see her. Can't remember what her name is." "What's her name now?" "Leah." "Oh, yeah, Leah Nici." "Never, ever see her." "Have you ever seen your local area MP?" "No." "And what do you think of your local area MP?" "I can't give an opinion for somebody I don't know." "I, I won't be voting because it, to me, it don't matter who you vote, they're all as bad." "The Unseen. I'm sorry, I try not to be political, but I call her the Unseen MP. Um, never see her."
Jane Hilden-King was once mayor of Northeast Lincolnshire and now works for the Fisherman's Mission, giving support to retired workers and their families. She was born in the East Marsh and has a much better understanding than many about how Grimsby found itself in this situation. "We have thriving docks. We had numerous companies from fish fingers, Birdseye, Rosses, Findus. We had the Humber Bank with all this employment. Look around today, no food factories, or very few. If they are, they're very small. Uh, we've lost basically all the oil industries and the big industries from the Humber Bank. And I think generally the poverty is because no jobs. And we are suffering in this area through lack of employment. So therefore, because of employment, what jobs are around are very low paid. And of course, our people are suffering really badly. And I don't think people grasp it. I don't think government grasp it."
We put the comments of people in the town to Lia Nici, who told us: "It is impossible for me to meet all 88,000 residents who live in the constituency. I live in Grimsby. I have spent most of my life working in and around Grimsby. I meet constituents in the town every week and work hard to represent them and will continue to do so."
It's fair to say that towns like Grimsby sometimes come with an unwanted reputation. Post-industrial decline is a story heard up and down the country, and walking around the town, it's hard not to notice the deprivation on display. But there's more to a place than just its high street, and Grimsby has a proud community. For 18 years, entertainer Andy Carr had a unique insight into his hometown and what makes its people tick. He was the original Mighty Mariner, Grimsby Town Football Club's official mascot. Every week, he saw thousands of fans make their way here to cheer on their team and their town, and he's passionate in his love for Grimsby and doesn't understand why it comes with such a reputation. "It annoys me because I wouldn't, you know, I'm, I'm a homie. I, I love living in the area in Grimsby, Cleethorpes. My family are the same. There's a lot of areas, there's more areas than bad areas for me in Grimsby and Cleethorpes. But it's just a shame that once again, Grimsby, Cleethorpes is being tarred with the negative brush when actually there's a lot more positive to come out the area and, and the people. The people in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, you know, there's a lot of good people. Yeah, we've got some bad, you know, there's, you know, some undesirable, as you get again in all towns and cities. I just, uh, I just wish that, um, I just wish that the positives for the area outweigh the negatives, which I actually think they do."
"How do you feel then when you hear about those statistics from the ONS?" "It's one area we're talking about, one area of Grimsby, Cleethorpes. I haven't, to be fair, seen the statistics of what the other areas are. But what about all the other areas in Grimsby, Cleethorpes, um, you know, that are probably nowhere near the bottom? You know, they've obviously singled it out. It's good in one sense that it's been singled out because maybe they can do something about that area. But I personally would never move away from Grimsby, Cleethorpes. I love living it, you know, love living down here. And, uh, the fact that I'm a big Grimsby Town fan, I couldn't, I couldn't move away and not come to the games."
As crowds leave this stadium every other weekend and head home, what sort of situation are they returning to? In some ways, it feels like Grimsby has been left behind. Depending on who, who you ask, it could be in for a bright future. One thing feels certain, though, that the last couple of years have not helped the situation. And if UK living standards don't improve fast, it could be the difference between Grimsby's resurgence or further decline. "They're not bothered about us down here, and that's been like it for years. But you can see it's just rough as rubbish everywhere. There's a lot being done, uh, and whether or not it's enough, that's debatable. Whether or not it's, it's too late, I doubt it. I think that, that we've got time to try and turn things around. A lot more could be done in this area 'cause I know I'm not the only house with mold or mice either. So a lot more could be done to to help. Government needs to massively step up. They need to realize how bad situations are. I mean, I've seen it foremost, mean, COVID. It, it, it's, it's difficult. Government to to really step up, big time."