The drug and alcohol addiction specialists Broadreach House have announced they will be closing on Friday 5 July. This affects Broadreach House on Tavistock Road that supports men and Longreach House in Mannamead that supports women.

Luke has spoken to the Chief Executive and the Leader of Plymouth City Council about what can be done locally to support this business and its staff. The clients at Broadreach are going to have ‘move-on’ plans for when Broadreach closes tomorrow.

Broadreach is a nationally important service and its closure will affect people far beyond Plymouth.

The City Council has confirmed to Luke that it is working with partners to see if alternative employment can be found for the 65 members of staff. Although full reasons for the closure are currently unknown, what we do know is that this sector’s funding has been hollowed out as a result of government cuts to local councils and social care budgets

Luke Pollard MP said:

“These closures are deeply troubling. We need to ensure that expert addiction services provided by Broadreach are retained in Plymouth, and that we don’t lose the skills and expertise of the staff at Broadreach and Longreach.

“Our social care system is completely underfunded, and I’ve raised this in the House of Commons time and time again. Helping people with complex needs address drug and alcohol addiction is really important and it is not easy to do. I am concerned that without a reversal of the decade of cuts closures like this could become more common as expert provision is slashed and those in need lose out.

“I want to thank the organisation and staff for all their hard work over the years.”