East Staffordshire Borough Council has recently announced a number of funds and schemes aimed at supporting residents throughout the ongoing cost of living challenge.
This month saw the Council commission the ‘Cost of Living Advisor Service’, which looks to provide hands on support to local households in need and provide a connection to a range of community services that are available to help. This will run alongside other existing services, resulting in a directory of relevant local services being made available to the public.
The Council is also to implement an Energy Efficiency Support Scheme, which will provide a range of low cost energy efficiency measures to eligible households to improve the energy efficiency of their property. This scheme will target 150 properties with an average spend of £350 per property, providing meaningful assistance to as many households as possible.
The Council is to continue and improve upon its Warm Spaces Grant Programme again this winter, providing continued support for residents who need help with energy bills. Following evaluation of the Warm Spaces scheme that ran in 2022/23, the Council has increased the grant funding available to ensure widespread coverage across the Borough. The grant is designed to contribute towards the costs of opening up community venues, extending opening hours and/or extending existing provisions. The period that the programme will cover is from 1st November 2023 through to 31st March 2024.
East Staffordshire Borough Council will also be directly supporting free food providers experiencing hardship by paying them £550pcm for 6 months on the strength of one application. At the end of each month, food providers email the receipts for items they have purchased with this fund and a record of the amount they have spent for monitoring purposes.
Free food providers will also have the opportunity to apply for funding to develop local Community Kitchens. This is a pilot initiative with an application scheme designed to foster innovation, but the intention is to find a community led solution which helps to address nutrition and food poverty in local areas.
In response to the general increase in rental costs, the Council has seen an increased volume of Discretionary Housing Payment applications and as a result has directly topped up this fund to prevent homelessness across the Borough.
In addition to the Discretionary Housing Payment contribution, the Council is also supporting households in rent arrears by making available grant payments under the Vulnerable Renters Payment Scheme which will be open for applications from the 1 December 2023.
Cllr Simon Slater, Cabinet Member for Communities and Regulatory Services, said: “East Staffordshire Borough Council is committed to supporting residents throughout the ongoing cost of living challenges. The many schemes and funds set out by the Council are a great example of how we strive to stand up for our local communities and provide whatever support we can.”
For more information on all of the schemes and funds mentioned above, please visit the Council’s website.