The Chairman of the Council, the Chairmen of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 13.
Minutes:
Question 1 - Councillor Otton to Councillor Richardson, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing
The decision of the chancellor to axe the £20 universal uplift on October 6th 2021 has left many people in Mid Suffolk struggling to meet the costs of rising energy bills, and many low income families will be hit by the increase in national insurance from April 2023, plus the rising cost of living. We recognise the extra money the Chancellor has made available but that still leaves many needing to seek advice. What is Mid Suffolk doing to help and support those individuals and families who are facing financial difficulties?
Response
There are a number of points to mention in response to Councillor Otton’s very important question, not least because it touches on several Cabinet portfolios. On a local level, services consisting of communities, customer services, housing, and wellbeing are currently working together to develop a seamless system that will enable us to better understand trends across the district and provide targeted support where is it is most needed.
The County Council are bringing together a range of stakeholders from across the districts to form a Poverty Board – this will help us to bring resources, understand issues and implement joint initiatives to manage the impact of the emerging crisis.
Moreover, Mid Suffolk also provides advice centres with a 3-year core grant provision to ensure there is longevity in providing support to people; thiscomplements current housing/welfare support provision within the Council – so we already have well established systems to provide support and advice to our residents.
We also have been going further by providing a range of initiatives and schemes to tackle the crisis and support local people, these range from:
· Tenancy Support Management where our approach is one of support and the Income Officers look at each tenant individually, looking at their situation as a whole rather than just as rent owed. This may involve signposting to other agencies that can assist, such as Citizens Advice, or referring to our in-house Tenancy Support Officers, who can help with maximising income, budgeting and negotiating with creditors.
· As part of our Shared Revenues Partnership we make the best use of our remaining Discretionary Housing Payment budget which support customers whose rent is restricted due to imposition of Local Housing Allowance, Bedroom Tax or Benefit Cap.
· Our Council Tax Reduction Scheme offering up to 95% reduction in Council Tax for working age residents and 100% reduction for pension age residents.
· Household Support Grants where new tenants are called by their rent officer within the first 2 weeks of their tenancy. This is identifying issues and providing greater support to tenants at an earlier stage. This is beneficial as it builds rapport and tenants know who to go to should they get into difficulties with their rent. It also means we can assist with benefit claims earlier on or help with referrals for debt.
· Alongside positive interventions locally, we also support people to cook healthier meals, the Department for Education have committed to three years funding for the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme which provides free activities and meals, during school holidays, to young people who are eligible for free school meals and as Councillors know, we have extended that to the half term as part of the £1,000,000 Wellbeing pot. Staff at BMSDC are coordinating this programme, making sure that it is available to those families most in need. The Family Park Cooking sessions are a great example of this whereby families are encouraged to cook inexpensive, healthy meals together and minimise food waste.
In addition to the support we provide to individuals themselves, Mid Suffolk Community Grant schemes are administered on our behalf and provide funding to voluntary and local community groups that support residents often with specific needs with over half a million spent in this financial year already.
In summary to Councillor Otton’s questions I want to provide assurance that the cost of living crisis is absolutely on Officers radar and they are preparing for the inter-sectional impact on individuals and families facing financial hardship. The funding from the Chancellor as Councillor Otton quite rightly said is welcomed but the focus must be on supporting people into well paid work whilst providing a safety net to prevent people from falling into crisis. That’s why working with a breadth of organisations is absolutely crucial in connecting a coherent local system that works for people across our districts.
And finally Chair, as the Leader has already indicated, as this is the first question of the first full Council of the new year I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate our commitment to delivering for our residents. With our new performance framework covering our six strategic priorities supported by our key enablers finance, investments and planning, we are in a strong position to respond to what will be a difficult few months for many. We know that with rising inflation, and the aftermath of Covid, our residents will be faced with numerous challenges, but I passionately believe that this is the year Mid Suffolk can rise to meet those challenges and support our residents and our communities.
Supplementary Question
I have been made aware of an elderly couple, one has just finished chemotherapy, the gentleman is in his 90’s. They have no way of knowing how to access all of those things that you have just mentioned other than ringing me up. I have been able to give them a form for surviving winter. I have been able to give them the telephone number for the CAB. So my question is can you assure me that all of those people that need that help will know exactly where to get that help from and will the Council make a supreme effort to publicise all of the help that may be available?
Response Councillor Richardson
Yes of course, we need to do absolutely everything we can to ensure that the support available from the District Council is well publicised and is accessible to all people in our communities. And if Councillor Otton is happy to give myself or Officers the details of this individual case we would be more than happy to look into it. The only thing I would mention is that if residents do contact Councillors, they are more than welcome to forward information about specific cases to myself or to our Communities and wellbeing team. As far as I am aware, we have not been notified about this case but Members can give officers that information rather than waiting to ask a formal question at Full Council.
Question 2 – Councillor Mellen to Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance
During last year’s budget discussion the Council agreed to set aside £4 million for specific project areas to be agreed by all-Councillor workshops and subsequently Cabinet agreed in November the allocation of £5.1 million to the identified priorities. How much of this money will have been spent by the end of this current financial year?
Response
Thank you for your question Cllr Mellen. I appreciate the time that has been taken to get to a point where we are starting to spend these large sums of money, but this is public money, we wanted a cross-party consultation, we hoped for a consensus and most importantly, we wanted to establish a well-thought through, coherent suite of plans. Now I feel we are there, it should be and it will be full-steam ahead.
As you know, there is a comprehensive set of initiatives that are supported by the £5.1m and will be delivered over varying time periods. They were at different stages of development when Cabinet made its decision back in November and there are different delivery models for achieving the outcomes that are being put in place. As an example, a number of them required the recruitment of additional fixed-term staff, which I’m pleased to say is happening, but it means that the level of spend in this year will be limited by when the successful candidates can take up their roles.
Of course, when one embarks on new projects and initiatives it is difficult to predict at precisely what rate they will spend. Our managers have made an assessment of what they think is likely to be spent by the end of March, and based on what they currently know, this stands at somewhere between £250k - £300k. I know that this figure will be considerably higher during next financial year as activity increases.
When the allocation of the money was approved, the report outlined that expenditure would be reported to Cabinet on a quarterly basis as part of the General Fund monitoring reports, as we do for the Growth and Efficiency Fund, so this is where you will see the detail in the future.
Supplementary Question
I am very grateful for that response but does he think that a commitment to spend the £5.1 million would be enhanced if it came with a detailed timetable for the spending?
Response
The Cabinet paper which I think ran over about six pages, I think had between 49 and 51 bullet points, but 51 projects it’s a great deal of detail and some of those are four figure amounts, there’s a six figure amount, and each one of those has been assigned to an Assistant Director and Corporate Manager and as far as I am concerned as this agreement goes through, its full steam ahead and all of those are seen as valued projects and need to be delivered as soon as possible.
Question 3 – Councillor Eburne to Councillor Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance
Since September 2020 individuals can claim £500 from the Self-isolation Support Payment Scheme if they cannot work due to self-isolation during Covid. What percentage of claims received have been paid? How much Government funding is the Council still holding?
Response
Thank you for your question Cllr Eburne. As at 23rd January 2022 Mid Suffolk had received 493 applications. Of these, 137 have been paid, 296 have been refused and 60 are still awaiting a decision. The percentage therefore that have been paid from the 433 that have been determined is 32%.
In terms of the funding that we are holding from the Government, our initial allocation was £126,500, so with the 137 payments made to date, we currently have £58,000 remaining.
Supplementary Question
That’s quite a low percentage 32% and I suspect that a lot of that is people using forms and unusual circumstances that people aren’t quite clear perhaps about how they need to claim it, what they need to do and so on. Obviously people who are claiming this money are in desperate need of the £500 due to their circumstances, and I just wonder what help we are providing claimants to do that.
Response
These funds are processed through the Shared Revenues Partnership and I sit on the Committee that monitors that and I think that this may help, an extract from the minutes on the 8th of September, and this is verbatim: Councillor Whitehead noted that self-isolation support scheme seemed to receive a large proportion of applications from people who were ineligible and asked what was the reason for this. The Shared Revenues Partnership Operations Manager explained that people who had heard of the scheme might make speculative claims but reported the application process guided those who didn’t qualify away from applying. So Councillor Whitehead asked for reassurances that responses from claimants weren’t being missed and their claims refused. The Shared Revenues Partnership Operations Manager confirmed that responses were not being missed and that claimants were given additional time to provide information. I can assure you that the Shared Revenues Partnership staff are very diligent and very caring people and really do go the extra mile to help these claimants.
Councillor Matthissen commented that in the past, written responses to submitted questions were available to Members before the start of the meeting, along with the Leaders announcements, and asked the Monitoring Officer to comment.
The Monitoring Officer advised that there was not a procedure rule which governs the provision of responses to questions from Councillors or Members of the public. The responder could choose the format in which they wished to respond and the questions and answers would be included in the minutes verbatim. This also applied to the Leaders announcements.
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