County Durham Council works in partnership to support residents with cost of living

A North East council has vowed to “keep doing all it can” to help people amid the rising cost of living.

Durham County Council has also committed to continuing to work with partners to assist residents, after some of the challenges facing them, including child poverty and reliance on benefits, were outlined at a conference.

The event, organised by the County Durham Partnership (CDP), also heard of the support the council and other agencies are already providing to people.

This includes the local authority committing more than £3m to tackle poverty in the last year and a half through initiatives across its services and partnerships. It has also maintained core funding to provide support to thousands of low income households with their council tax payments, including nearly 40,000 claimants who receive a full 100 per cent reduction.

Cllr Amanda Hopgood, chair of the CDP and Leader of the council, commented: “We are in difficult times at the moment and we are naturally concerned by the levels of child poverty and families reliant on benefits across the North East, including here in County Durham.

“We are committed to continuing to do everything we can to help people, continuing our council tax reduction and welfare assistance schemes, the Fun and Food programme and various other forms of support and building on the £3.1m recently spent on initiatives to address poverty.

“We will also continue to work with partners where we can and it was great to see other organisations at the CDP event making similar commitments. We welcome the money given by the government through the Household Support Fund but will continue to make the case for it to give even greater financial help in recognition of the challenges we still face.”

The CDP is made up of key public, private and voluntary sector organisations including the council. They work together with a common purpose and ambition for the county and seek to improve the quality of life for County Durham residents.

The event, ‘Supporting our communities through cost-of-living pressures,’ was organised jointly with the part council-funded Advice in County Durham, a voluntary sector-led partnership of local advice providers.

Attended by representatives of the CDP partners as well as voluntary and community organisations and groups, it sought to inspire those present to take action within their geographical areas and organisations and provide them with the information and contacts to do so.

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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