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Dear colleague
Welcome to the LGA's cost of living bulletin, featuring news and updates from across the sector on a wide range of topics around the cost of living, including what the LGA is doing to support councils and communities.
Cost of living hub
The LGA cost of living hub continues to share best practice designed to help councils to support their residents with the rising cost of living. The hub has been viewed over 25,000 times since its launch and has been promoted through various channels, including in the LGA letter sent to Prime Minister Liz Truss last month.
We have added dozens of new case studies since our last bulletin which can be found on the hub. If you would like to share an example of something you are working on in your local area, email welfare@local.gov.uk
Cost of Living Network
The LGA Cost of Living Network gives councils the opportunity to come together and hear from speakers on what is being done locally and nationally to hep mitigate the impacts of the cost of living pressures.
Whole-systems approach to rising cost of living
The LGA are running a project to capture case studies of councils that are taking a cross-cutting approach to addressing the cost of living. The case studies will form a report that will sit on our website and cost of living hub.
Thank you to all councils that have expressed an interest since our last bulletin. We have amended our commission slightly to reflect recent fiscal activity and are in the process of selecting 18 councils.
There is still time to put your council forward for this project, contact welfare@local.gov.uk to find out more.
Analysis on poorly insulated homes
LGA Chair of Resources Board article in First magazine
Councillor Andrew Western, who is chair of our Resources Board, recently published an article in First Magazine, a monthly membership magazine for councillors and local authority chief executives in England and Wales. The article focuses on the work that our elected members are doing to coordinate cost of living activities within the LGA.
LGA Housing Advisers Programme 2022/23
The Housing Advisers Programme is a funding offer designed to support councils seeking to innovate in meeting the housing needs of their communities. In the previous five years of the programme, the LGA have supported over 150 projects across more than 300 councils. The 2022/23 programme opens 29 September 2022 and will accept applications until 24 November 2022.
Health Disparities White Paper
This month the LGA joined 155 organisations in signing a letter to Thérèse Coffey urging the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to maintain the commitment to publishing a Health Disparities White Paper by the end of this year.
New guide to supporting people with a learning disability or autism
The LGA’s Care and Health Improvement Team (CHIP) have published tips and resources for council staff who need to support people with a learning disability or autistic people, with cost of living related concerns.
Barnsley Council has worked closely with their voluntary and community sector to deliver the Household Support Fund. They have allocated some of the funding to community organisations who are developing sustainable approaches to the rising cost of living, including a community coalition, a credit union and a local food partnership.
The grant has been utilised in a way that supports and complements the existing social infrastructure in Barnsley, which consists of organisations who have strong community roots and a firm understanding of hyper-local need. The council has recognised this partnership approach to supporting residents as important to delivering an effective, long-lasting response to the cost of living.
The map is supporting the Council's cost of living response and has been used to identify where efforts should be concentrated, including warm spaces and additional community hubs aimed at addressing wider needs.
Maidstone has launched a data sharing partnership with South East Water UK to identify low-income customers and transfer them to a social water tariff. The council have utilised the powers set out in the Digital Economy Act to achieve this, a legislation aimed at improving public services through the better use of data.
It is expected that a total of 7,000 residents will benefit from the scheme, equating to around 10 per cent of the total properties in the borough. The water company is now looking to team up with other councils to grow the service further.
Household Support Fund October 2022 – March 2023 draft guidance
Upper-tier and unitary councils are due to received their third allocation of the Household Support Fund to cover the period 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. The updated draft guidance was shared with councils in September and remains broadly similar. However, there are some changes to the spending criteria.
We expect the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), who administer the grant, to remove the ring-fenced requirement to spend at least one third of the funding to support households with children, and another third on households a pensioner. The LGA are pleased Government have listened to our asks and the change will give councils the flexibility to identify which vulnerable households are in most need of support and apply their own discretion when identifying eligibility.
The DWP have added a new requirement that every area must offer at least part of their scheme on an application basis. We interpret this to mean that councils will need to ensure residents are able to self-refer for hardship funds. The guidance does not specify how much funding will need to be available for self-referral, or how that referral process should work. This gives councils the discretion to decide how an application scheme would work best locally, including through third sector partners.
Energy Price Guarantee
The Government announced the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) on 8 September, which caps the unit of cost of energy per kWh for pre-pay and bill-pay tariffs. While a household’s bill will continue to be influenced by how much energy is used, Government have estimated that a typical household will pay under £2,500 per year for their energy. It has been reported that the language used to describe the scheme has caused confusion, leading some people to believe their bill will be capped at a fixed price. Money Saving Expert have produced an energy price cap calculator that councils could consider distributing to help mitigate confusion over usage.
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
On 29 September the Government opened the £800 million Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) for applications. The fund will help to upgrade the social housing stock currently below Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) C up to that standard. It will support the installation of energy performance measures in social homes in England, and help deliver warm, energy-efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions, tackle fuel poverty, support green jobs, develop the retrofit sector and improve the comfort, health and wellbeing of social housing tenants.
Help to Heat Fund
The Government have announced £1.5 billion of funding for a new Help to Heat scheme to improve energy efficiency and reduce bills for low-income households. Councils and social housing providers will be able to submit bids for funding to deliver upgrades to properties from early 2023 until March 2025. It is estimated that upgrades will reach 130,000 households and save around £400 to £700 a year on energy bills at current prices.
The Treasury Committee cost of living inquiry
The Treasury Committee are examining the causes of the increase in the cost of living, how persistent the increases are likely to be, the impact on different groups in society and the likely effectiveness of Government policies to mitigate it. On 22 September, the Committee heard oral evidence from partner organisations including the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Confederation of British Industry, and the Resolution Foundation.
District Councils’ Network
The District Councils' Network (DCN) has recently undertaken a survey of its members to identify key cost of living pressures affecting residents, and the services provided by district councils. They have also asked members about pressures on their homelessness services, as rents continue to rise. This will feed into the network's ongoing advocacy, alongside a homelessness prevention report which they hope to release in the next few weeks. If you would like to discuss the survey, please contact luke.masters@local.gov.uk.
DWP Universal Credit programme
In April the DWP announced plans to resume the activity to move all legacy benefit claimants over to Universal Credit by the end of 2024. Starting initially in Bolton and Medway, the programme has now expanded to discovery locations to Cornwall (Falmouth & Truro), Harrow and Northumberland (Berwick & Hexham), continuing with a small scale test and learn approach.
Let us know if you would like to see anything in particular in further DWP updates.
Money and Pensions Service (MaPS)
As both public creditors and advice providers, MaPS are encouraging councils to respond directly with operational knowledge of customer journeys and experiences.
Cabinet Office Fairness Group
The Cabinet Office-led Fairness Group continues to work across the debt sector to drive improvements in Government debt management. This Autumn, the group will launch the Economic Abuse Toolkit, developed in partnership with the charity Surviving Economic Abuse, and Money Advice Plus. The toolkit was developed to heighten Government’s awareness and response to economic abuse and will be accessible across both local and central Government.
Warm Spaces map – a national map and directory to register a space as a ‘warm bank’ and direct people to support.
Food Prices Tracker – a basic basket tracker from the Food Foundation measuring weekly prices of a basket of food for an adult male and adult female as part of a reasonably-costed, adequately-nutritious diet.
National Debtline cost of living poll – briefing from a poll of over 2,000 adults, including the finding that one in five UK adults are already behind on at least one household bill.
Energy bills support factsheet – a gov.uk overview of energy support schemes.
Rising cost of living research briefing – an overview of rising prices, particularly food, energy and fuel prices from the House of Commons Library.
Public opinions and social trends, Great Britain: 14 to 25 September 2022 – Office of National Statistics social insights on daily life and events, including the cost of living.
In this webinar, Anna Taylor and Andrew Forsey will explore how cost of living pressures and rising food prices are impacting food insecurity, and limiting children’s access to nutritious food. We will also be joined by Bath & North East Somerset Council, who will introduce their new Food Equity Action Plan and the accompanying steps that are being taken locally to improve children’s access to healthy food.
The research predicts significant health, social and education detriment for a new generation of children if, as forecast, 55 per cent of households (15 million people), fall into fuel poverty by January 2023 without effective interventions.
There a number of upcoming free non-LGA events which may be of interest:
For more information visit our Cost of living hub
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