More funding to support vulnerable residents - but less has to go further for longer

Just a week after leaders slammed central government over the amount of financial support it has provided for Greater Manchester’s most vulnerable residents, new funding has been released.

Central government has allocated a further £10m for the city-region’s councils to distribute to those most struggling.

The money has been given to help ease the impact of covid.

But the new allocation for the longer summer break to see families through until September is less than was given out over the winter period to cover the shorter Christmas holiday period.

As with previous covid support grant funding, the new cash has been ringfenced specifically to help struggling families with costs like household bills, food and essential items.

The city-region’s councils have been dishing out previous funds in direct payments to families, supermarket vouchers or through donations to charities that support those struggling.

More than £17m was given out in grants to Greater Manchester councils over winter, but last week the city-region’s leaders said it fell ‘massively short’.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester city council, summed up the feelings of a number of the area’s council leaders when he said: “Although this money helped to plug a specific gap during the Christmas holidays and ensure some of Manchester’s poorest families had enough to eat, this funding goes nowhere near to meeting the full costs of covid to the council and to the city – and falls massively short of what we would expect from government during this crisis.

“Couple this with a budget that has imposed inflation busting council tax increases on residents and we are seeing a cumulative negative impact that can only hit the city’s most vulnerable people harder in the coming months.”

Now, the government has announced the exact amount of new funding for each borough.

Here’s how much each borough is set to receive:

Bolton – £1,045,536
Bury – £582,982
Manchester – £2,429,569
Oldham – £917,354
Rochdale – £881,803
Salford – £1,025,274
Stockport – £816,713
Tameside – £841,990
Trafford – £553,642
Wigan – £1,058,388

In total, that’s a further £10,153,251 across the city-region.

With previous tranches of funding, that takes Greater Manchester’s overall total of covid support grant funding to £27,229,754.26 since the start of the pandemic.

Reactions to the new funding have been mixed.

In Manchester, it is understood the city council is still ironing out the details of how it will use its new funding.

Coun Chris Ready, cabinet member for communities and culture at Wigan council, said: “Our teams were successful in distributing funds extremely quickly [over winter], with our approach being recognised by Greater Manchester Poverty Action as an example to follow.

“This level of commitment will continue as we roll out the next stage of this funding, however, the issues our families are facing are long-term and won’t necessarily come to an end after the summer.

“We’re working tirelessly to support those already engaged with us, as well as those additional people who have presented themselves to our services for the first time as a direct result of the indescribable pressures they are facing as a result of the pandemic.”

Coun Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation at Rochdale council, said: “Whilst the funding is very welcome, we have been faced with huge increases in demand during the pandemic with so many families really struggling to manage, and more children accessing free school meals.

“The demand is still there and we expect it will still be there through to the winter and beyond.

"Whilst this short term grant extension to the end of September is good news, we need a commitment for longer term funding so we can offer more sustainable essential support to those households in greatest need.”

A spokesperson for Trafford council said: “Trafford council is delighted to receive this funding from the government. This will again allow us to run our highly-successful food voucher scheme which will be of huge benefit to our most vulnerable residents over the summer period.”

Minister for Welfare Delivery, Will Quince, said: “This grant is ensuring that thousands of families get help with food and essential utility bills as we move back towards normality.

“The new funding extends this lifeline to those most in need in the coming months as we continue to help families back on their feet, including supporting people back into work through our multi-billion pound Plan for Jobs.”

Across England, the total new funding is £160m, bringing the overall value of the support since December 2020 to £429.1m.

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