TWO borough MPs travelled on Ealing Community Transport minibuses for a morning to discover how it ends social isolation in their constituencies.

The introduction of a Minister for Loneliness in January shows the UK has woken up to the huge societal costs of isolation.

In Ealing, Deloitte research estimates that loneliness could cost up to £10m. With community transport calculated to reduce this figure by £4m, local authorities and the Government are turning to organisations like ECT.

Ealing MPs Rupa Huq and Virendra Sharma spent the morning travelling on ECT’s green buses to meet the people behind the numbers.

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They joined journeys to collect two regular ECT passengers, Susie and Sudesh Sharma, who both use the service to go shopping.

Susie was accompanied on her supermarket trip in Acton by Rupa Huq, who commented: “It’s amazing seeing up close the work ECT puts in to end isolation in our community on a daily basis, and meeting passengers like Susie show what a lifeline it really is.”

In Southall, Virendra Sharma accompanied Sudesh Sharma on her weekly groceries trip.

It was a nostalgic trip for the MP, a former ECT volunteer driver, who reflected: “Without it, many Southall residents would struggle to even leave their house once a week.”