Multi-bank will be ‘vital’ for 75,000 families in the region

Bosses said it was ‘terribly sad” the new facility in Nechells, Birmingham, was needed but would prove to be vital for around 75,000 families across the region over the next year.

It will be led by Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC) with support from former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Amazon, Comic Relief and the Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker.

The West Midlands Multibank will take donations from businesses with goods including clothing, crockery, and cleaning products, to toiletries, towels and toys.

It is anticipated it will hand out around 750,000 items in its first year in operation.

Mr Parker has also committed 1,000 free four week travel passes to dish out to people to help them get to school, college, work or the high streets.

He said: “It’s terribly sad we need a facility like this. It’s shocking, frankly, after 15 years of the last Tory Government, we’ve now got almost half the children growing up in poverty.

“That’s why facilities like this are so important. It’s also why my policies around transport, housing, skills and jobs and our economy are so important. We need to deliver prosperity and improve the lives of everyone in every part of this region.

“That’s what I’m doing, whether it’s building more social housing, bringing public transport back into public control, investing in skills and people so they can get better-paid jobs and then when we grow our economy, that growth is embedded, and it benefits every part of the region.

“The priorities I’m working on, because of their complexity, take a few years to have a real impact, although we are seeing differences now.

“But, in the short term, facilities like this will help tens of thousands of families and that’s really important.”

Fred Rattley, of Thrive Together Birmingham, said “I work for a charity aimed at tackling poverty in the West Midlands and helping communities flourish.

“We are connected to literally hundreds of community groups in neighbourhoods right across the city and beyond.

“We’re really keen to see how the Multibank can impact their work and use their connections with families who are really struggling.”

He added: “I think it’s got potential. I’m nervous about supply and demand, the levels of demand are so high.

“If it can be a collaboration with other companies and they can get vast amounts of stuff in, then it connects to the right organisations for distribution, then it gets the system working. It if does is on it’s own, I think it will go under with demand.”

And Junaid Akhtar, who sits on the Board of Trustees for BVSC and also represents the Sufi Abdullah Foundation charity said: “It’s a great initiative.

“It highlights the importance of working in partnership. That cannot be stressed enough especially now when resources are finite.

“It’s incredibly important we come together and work collectively to take this forward. This is going to make a huge difference to many households.

“Sufi Abdullah Foundation is a trusted partner in delivering the household support fund and we see a lot of families come to us to get access to that £200 grant and this will be an add on to that.”