Council  

Subject:                    Food and labour shortages

Date of meeting:    2 February 2023

Agenda Item 86

Proposer:                 Councillor Druitt

Seconder:                Councillor Ebel

Ward(s) affected:   All

Notice of Motion

Green Group

This council notes:

1. A recent report has highlighted that Brexit has caused a shortfall of over 300 thousand workers in the UK workforce
2. This shortage of workers has affected a number of local businesses, including hospitality and social care providers, as well as the council
3. That a further recent report from LSE showed that the cost of Brexit has put an additional £210 onto the average household food bill and costing UK consumers a total of £5.8billion
4. That these combined are adding to inflation and that this hits our poorest residents the hardest as food is a greater proportion of their bills
5. That this evidence shows Brexit has caused an avoidable increase in challenges and costs for households and businesses alike
6. The Government are seeking to scrap a large number of EU laws with the Retained EU Law Bill which includes protections for food regulation, clean drinking water, thriving nature & wildlife as well as workers rights.

Therefore, resolves to:

7. Request the Chief Executive writes to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor highlighting these concerns and requesting a closer relationship with the EU single market
8. Support the European Movement UK campaign to ‘Save our Standards’ against the Retained EU Law Bill
9. Reaffirm our commitment as a council to supporting the city’s emergency food network and encourage everyone who is able to donate to foodbanks.

Supporting Information:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/17/shortfall-of-330000-workers-in-uk-due-to-brexit-say-thinktanks

[2] https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2022/l-December-22/By-the-end-of-2021-Brexit-had-already-cost-UK-households-a-total-of-5.8-billion-in-higher-food-bills-%E2%80%93-new-LSE-research