This section outlines how councils are developing strategy and policies to tackle local inequalities and make sure the most vulnerable in society are supported with the rises in cost of living.
- Councils across the UK declaring cost of living emergencies
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Councils across the UK have declared cost of living emergencies, including:
- Ashfield District Council
- Cambridge City Council
- City of York Council
- Cotswold District Council
- East Riding Council
- Hull City Council
- Lewis District Council
- Mendip District Council
- Somerset and West Taunton Council
- South Oxfordshire District Council
- Stevenage Borough Council
- Torbay Council
- Wakefield Council
- Watford Borough Council
- Worthing Borough Council
An example of what this entails can be seen in Cambridge:
Cambridge City Council: Council sets out measures to support residents with cost of living emergency
- Cambridge City Council: Anti-Poverty Strategy
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Cambridge took the decision to revise their poverty strategy based on an evolution of the council’s approach to addressing poverty and building on the learnings from services and recent delivered projects. It includes an action plan, which was created using evidence about poverty in Cambridge and by asking people living on low-incomes, and representatives of other public agencies and community and voluntary sector groups, what they felt the key issues were.
The Anti-Poverty Strategy has three key themes:
- addressing the root causes of poverty through preventative activity, whilst also responding to the effects of poverty experienced by households in Cambridge
- balancing direct delivery, partnership-working and influencing and lobbying work
- building the capacity.
- Bassetlaw District Council: Leading a place-based response
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Bassetlaw District Council has identified the cost of living crisis as the biggest current threat to its communities, revised its Corporate Plan to reflect this situation and reallocated the use of reserves to match this commitment.
- Blackpool Council: Financial Inclusion Strategy
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Blackpool are responding to the cost of living with a new Financial Inclusion Strategy, which aims to improve financial inclusion across the town by bringing local organisations together to share understanding of the issues and tackle the effects. It is hoped that approaches and ambitions laid out in the strategy will strengthen communities and individuals’ resilience to financial shocks.
Draft Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027 (blackpool.gov.uk)
- City of Wolverhampton Council: Financial Wellbeing Strategy
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Wolverhampton has developed a new Financial Wellbeing Strategy to support economically vulnerable residents. The Council has committed £1.1 million for this financial year, alongside grant funding through the Household Support Fund, to help reduce socioeconomic inequalities in the city. The strategy focuses on core areas where improvement is required, such as through financial responsibility, tackling food and fuel poverty, improving access to financial information, building awareness to promote behaviour change and working with people to maximise money and opportunities.
- Salford City Council: The Salford Way
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Salford’s trailblazing initiative, The Salford Way, was launched by the City Mayor one year ago. It highlights the city’s ambitions as a leader in building a fairer, greener and healthier city for all.
- Walsall Councils: Cumulative Equality Impact Assessment
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After recognising flaws, Walsall Council took steps to significantly improve its equality impact assessment processes.
- West Northamptonshire Council: Anti-Poverty Strategy
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West Northamptonshire's new Anti-Poverty Strategy sets out how the council will work with partners to support people struggling financially, what will be done to stop people falling into poverty and how the council will work to influence Government and other national organisations to get the best deal for the community. The strategy also involved input from a Poverty Truth Commission that included people who are living through the experience of poverty. This important insight is likely to increase the value and impact the strategy has for the community.
Tackling poverty in West Northants | West Northamptonshire Council
- Westminster City Council
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In response to the cost of living crisis, Westminster launched a cost of living strategy in July 2022. This includes an eight point package built around three pillars:
- targeting an initial £5.5m package of support to help families in Westminster that are struggling with the rising cost of living
- working with partners to ensure that the Council coordinates and maximises their impact
- making sure residents have the information they need to access all the support on offer to them.
Cost of living support hub and strategy | Westminster City Council