Simon Townsley/Panos Pictures

Hedley Well and Rey Blewett tending vegetable gardens at the Byker Community centre.

The Byker community has been blighted by the impact of decades of unemployment and underinvestment. Earlier this month figures released by the Office for National Statistics found the north-east of England had become the area with the highest proportion of deaths linked to COVID-19, with a rate double that of London. And there are fears the economic aftershock could be even more severe.