Agenda item

To update the Health and Wellbeing Board on the collective response to the impact on residents in West Berkshire of the rise in the cost of living and consider how we build upon the response so far.

Sean Murphy (Public Protection Manager) presented the update on the Local Response to the Cost of Living Crisis (Agenda Item 10).

Feedback was provided on the recent meeting between statutory service providers and the voluntary sector. All agencies / organisations had reported an increase in demand at a time when they were also facing increases to their operating costs. This was leading to financial difficulties for some organisations.  Organisations were seeing more complex cases, often involving mental health aspects. There had been an increase in immediate indebtedness, where individuals were unable to pay their bills / living expenses. The general view was that there was a housing crisis coming, with more evictions, more investigations around the condition of properties in the private rental sector, and challenges facing landlords due to higher mortgage costs, which was putting pressure on affordable rents. There had been some discussion around how the Household Support Fund was coordinated, with a desire to speed up decision making and allocation of funds. Grants were still available from Greenham Trust. The key message from the event was that the challenges from rising costs of living had not gone away – although inflation was reducing, people were still struggling, with resulting impacts on health.

Members agreed that there was no point in the Council having funds if it could not get these allocated quickly to those in need. A proposal was being developed for the allocation of funds through third parties. It was suggested that working with the voluntary sector could deliver better value for money. It was agreed that the Volunteer Centre would be included in discussions as a matter of course, since they had a good view of the situation across the whole district. It was suggested that there should be more regular meetings between statutory providers and the voluntary sector.

Action: Sean Murphy to circulate minutes from the meeting between statutory agencies and the voluntary sector partners to all HWB Members.

It was confirmed that Sovereign Housing would like to be represented at future meetings to ensure that residents could benefit not only from the Housing Support Fund, but also the support funds that Sovereign offered to its residents and customers.

Action: Sean Murphy to meet with Matthew Hensby to discuss the support that is available and to coordinate activity.

The commitment to speed up allocation of funds was welcomed as delays incurred by filling out paperwork could make matters worse.

It was suggested that better comms were needed, since 40% of applications had been rejected, and this was often because not enough information had been provided. It was suggested that the voluntary sector may be aware of individuals most in need and may be able to support them with their applications.

It was confirmed that a comms campaign was planned for the autumn, which would promote the fund and explain the applications process.

It was acknowledged that the voluntary sector would be able to respond more quickly than the Council could. For example, the Community Furniture Project was able to support applicants with white goods within a few hours. Once a model of working had been agreed between the Council and the voluntary sector, this would be part of future comms.

It was noted that other local authorities such as Northamptonshire had made use of the voluntary sector, parish councils and community development workers to identify people in need. They had also invested in the voluntary sector infrastructure, so they had the resources to be able to deal with the extra workload generated through the Household Support Fund.

RESOLVED that the Service Lead for Public Protection report on progress to the Board at its meeting in December 2023.