(Report of Director of Finance and Transformation)

Approval was sought of the Borough Council’s approach in the use of the current grant of Household Support Fund (HSF) for the Borough.  Cabinet was reminded that the Fund was initially established as part of the covid recovery financial package and now formed part of the national cost of living support package to those in most need across England with the cost of food, energy, water bills and other essentials.  The report advised that, in Kent, the Fund was allocated to the County Council which had decided to distribute a proportion of the fund to district councils to target support in their areas on conditional agreement of the direction of spend meeting national and local criteria.  The grant was to be used in the period 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 and, in Tonbridge and Malling, amounted to a total of £326,896.00 in the form of two allocations:

Allocation A – to support pensioners with energy bills (£262,710.00)

Allocation B – to support vulnerable households in line with wider Government guidance (£64,186.00)

The report proposed that, in respect of Allocation A, direct awards/payments of £100 be made to all pensioner households in receipt of local council tax reduction during the grant period (approximately 2,500 households) with the residual balance being used to assist individual pensioner households in hardship through rising energy costs on referral from Council services or supporting agencies.  With regard to Allocation B the report proposed that this be distributed on negotiation to the network of foodbanks across the Borough, having regard to those areas with highest demand.

After having regard to the legal and resource implications, financial and value for money considerations and the risk and equality impact assessments, the Cabinet resolved that:

(1)             the Household Support Fund Policy, as set out at Annex 1 to the report, be approved; and

(2)             delegated authority be granted to the Director of Finance and Transformation to establish an effective operational scheme to disburse funds in accordance with the detail in that Policy.