Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth
The cost of living crisis continues to put huge pressure on many households in Wokingham, and those who had no room in their budgets to make further savings are hit the hardest.
If you’re living on Universal Credit, for example, your income is no longer enough to pay for the basic essentials. In Wokingham Borough, this means that there’s a £12 million a year gap between what our Universal Credit claimants receive and what they need to pay the bills for basics.
The Liberal Democrats and Wokingham Borough Council are absolutely committed to doing everything that we can to help those affected. Our partnership with our voluntary and community sector partners is vital to our ability to do this.
Our work with our Hardship Alliance partners is key to delivering this year’s £1.05 million Hardship Support Fund money to those who need it most. This central government funding allows us to make emergency grants to residents who can’t afford food or energy. Residents can approach the Citizens Advice Bureau or Age UK Berkshire to apply for a grant.
Families with children who receive free school meals can also get vouchers to help feed children in the holidays, and should approach the First Days Children’s Charity if they are not already receiving these.
In the current crisis many people who have never had to ask for help before need some assistance in paying for essentials. You are not alone and we are here to help.
The Winter Warmers project is another huge success which could not have been delivered without the Hardship Alliance and the wider Hardship Alliance Action Group.
An investment of just £60,000 in energy-saving appliances such as air fryers, slow cookers and heated blankets will deliver energy savings worth an estimated £1.2 million for those in Wokingham who are living on the lowest incomes.
The Liberal Democrat administration and council officers have now earmarked an additional £250,000 to deliver further projects, using the relationships and principles which made Winter Warmers such a success.
We consulted with cross-party councillors and the Hardship Alliance on how we should best spend the money. We considered whether we should use the money to give more one-off grants to people in need, but the Winter Warmers project gave us a clear answer – we should look at spending this money on longer-term projects which will bring much greater benefits to our residents in the years to come.
Working together, we have identified a number of key focus areas for the spending of the £250k on the these projects. These include:
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Establishing a community food project, which will enable residents to access affordable and nutritious food in a way which compliments the existing emergency and low-cost food options already available in the borough.
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Expanding the Borough’s Holiday, Activity and Food programme to support more families living on low incomes, including SEND children and young carers.
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Ensuring that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds have equal opportunities to succeed at school and can participate in all aspects of school life. This includes an innovative pilot project to work with schools to ‘poverty-proof the school day’ and ensure that students have access to the essential learning tools they need to succeed.
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Tackling extreme social isolation and the causes of mental and physical health problems by ensuring that residents living on the lowest incomes have the opportunity to exercise and meet others.
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Boosting access to services to help residents keep out of unmanageable debt.
We will establish these longer-term projects during the coming year and they will become a permanent part of tackling poverty in Wokingham.
I have always said that eliminating poverty in the Borough should unite councillors of all parties.
The more voices that we have at the table, the stronger our solutions and our help to residents will be.
I hope that my colleagues from across the chamber will be able to join the current administration, the officers and our Voluntary and Community Sector partners in making this project a success.
Cllr Rachel Bishop-Firth is the executive member for Equalities, Inclusion and Fighting Poverty on Wokingham Borough Council
