Supporting Struggling Households in F&H

I have a monthly briefing with the excellent Andrew Hatcher in my F&HDC Cabinet role, and have done since 2020 and taking the Revenues and Benefits portfolio (six years Andrew. Where does the time go?).

Within that briefing we look at various metrics: collections rates, processing times, enquiries and more.

However, we tend to concentrate most on the work around supporting struggling households, and getting the grants and support we have from Government to local residents. A couple of key points from this year on that work:

• The Council have assisted 137 households with white goods using funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The full £60,000 has been spent to support households in 2025/26;
• The Council is on track to have spent all of the £365,265 budget from Household Support Fund for 2025/26. This has helped struggling households with supermarket vouchers, white goods, smaller utilities, housing costs, off grid energy support and children’s clothing. 

That will be £1/3m into the hands of residents that need it across the district this year - every penny we were given.

There's a reason the Revenues and Benefits team have won so many awards in the last 6 years. So many. This is one of them - their dedication to supporting those that need it most as much as they can. I wish we had more money to support, but with what we have, I really believe we do the best possible.