Issue - meetings

The Committee resolved:-

(i)              to allocate £430,000 to Community Food Initiatives North East for investment in food procurement, development of food pantries (300 memberships, weekly food shops, management and admin); and Support, Advice, Finance and Education team support;

(ii)             to allocate £300,000 to the Scottish Welfare Fund provision to reinstate medium priority applications to the end of March 2023;

(iii)            to allocate £100,000 to SCARF to assist in alleviating fuel poverty through distribution of fuel vouchers and trialling a ‘cash first’ approach;

(iv)           to allocate £100,000 to ABZ works to support 100 lone parent families through existing employability programmes;

(v)             to allocate £45,000 to the provision of insulation measures for 500 homes;

(vi)           to allocate £25,000 to establish a Family Wellbeing Fund, to support families through the provision of advice and to develop a support plan.

(vii)          to instruct the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to make arrangements to distribute the funds as required;

(viii)        to instruct the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to report to a future Committee on the outcomes achieved by the allocation of funds;

(ix)           to instruct the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to report to the relevant committee on the provision of warm spaces within Aberdeen and explore any support that can be provided to communities visiting them;

(x)             should additional resources be made available by either the UK or Scottish Government for fuel and the cost of living crisis, to instruct the relevant Chief Officer to report to the relevant committee with options for the best allocation of these funds;

(xi)           to request that in relation to the money allocated to Community Food Initiatives North East, to send information to members by way of email, the breakdown of the costs of administration and management;

(xii)          to request that the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment, investigate if there had been any requests from tenants to switch off their gas supply, following press coverage regarding Langstane Housing and tenants asking for their gas supply to be turned off due to the soaring fuel costs, and to let members know by way of email of any such requests.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment, which responded to the decision taken by Council at the meeting  on 13 July 2022, to approve that the £1,000,000 Fuel Poverty Fund be considered in the wider Cost of Living Support report.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)          allocates £430,000 to Community Food Initiatives North East for investment in food procurement, development of food pantries (300 memberships, weekly food shops, management and admin); and Support, Advice, Finance and Education team support;

(b)          allocates £300,000 to the Scottish Welfare Fund provision to reinstate medium priority applications to the end of March 2023;

(c)          allocates £100,000 to SCARF to assist in alleviating fuel poverty through distribution of fuel vouchers and trialling a ‘cash first’ approach;

(d)          allocates £100,000 to ABZ works to support 100 lone parent families through existing employability programmes;

(e)          allocates £45,000 to the provision of insulation measures for 500 homes;

(f)           allocates £25,000 to establish a Family Wellbeing Fund, to support families through the provision of advice and to develop a support plan;

(g)          instructs the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to make arrangements to distribute the funds as required; and

(h)          instructs the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to report to a future Committee on the outcomes achieved by the allocation of funds.

The Convener moved, seconded by the Vice Convener:-

That the Committee:-

(1)          approve the recommendations contained in the report;

(2)          instruct the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to report to the relevant committee on the provision of warm spaces within Aberdeen and explore any support that can be provided to communities visiting them; and

(3)          should additional resources be made available by either the UK or Scottish Government for fuel and the cost of living crisis, to instruct the relevant Chief Officer to report to the relevant committee with options for the best allocation of these funds;

Councillor Grant moved as an amendment, seconded by Councillor Thomson:-

That the Committee:-

a)            Agrees that inadequate cost-of-living support presents an immediate and serious risk to people, communities and businesses in Aberdeen;

b)            Notes that the available £1million fund was only made possible as a result of decisions taken by the previous Labour-led Council administration within the approved budget in March 2022;

c)            Notes the “Working in Partnership for Aberdeen” policy statement, approved on 18 May 2022 aims to, “devolve at least 1% of the council’s annual budget to communities, allowing them to decide their spending priorities through participative budgeting.”;

d)            Instructs the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to bring an urgent report to the City Growth and Resources Committee on 21^st September seeking approval of a proposal to create a special Participatory Budget focussing on the cost-of-living to enable residents and communities to work together to develop solutions and fund community-led cost-of-living initiatives and approval to commit up to £100,000 from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19