riggsy

Matthew and team did a fantastic job on my house - a full renovation (including some funky structural work that required thought and changes made to our architect plans / discussion with Building Control). Always very responsive, polite and trustworthy, We lived in whilst they did the work and they worked around us - they were always polite, tidy and I found Matthew, Andras and team to be good, decent, trustworthy people. I've since had them back in to do another small project for me and will do so again next year. I thoroughly recommend them.

What struck me, and from what I hear, is that it's the de-humanising of the whole process that causes so many of the issues. My family hit hard times growing up, my mum was on benefits and we were in social housing but we could always make our case, had understanding and our situation was considered uniquely ie we wasn't some generic client or number in a queue whereas that seems to be more the case today The other thing the film raised was just the level of poverty that you can find yourself in so quickly, the struggling parent trying to feed her children and relying on food banks...Food banks are inundated in this country and their use is growing exponentially, only this week I read an article that a quarter of nurses have used food banks.

Saw this very moving / sad film last night called ?I, Daniel Blake?; I think it should be compulsory viewing ? for me personally it was definitely a reality check and shook me out of my little bubble. It?s hard going but I?m so keen for as many people to see the film. I can't stop thinking about it 24hours later... If you were not planning on seeing this then maybe as a nudge, for the first 5 people that watch it and send to me what the cost of their cinema ticket was then I'll total it all up, double it and donate that sum to the nearest local food bank. just a gesture but its a start. Dan