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1.   
Approved the plan to deliver cost
of living support to residents through the service delivery
outlined in Appendix 1, subject to the Council budget-setting
process and any announcement from Government on HSF or other
funding for local authorities to provide cost of living
support.
2.   
Delegated to the Director of
Housing, Neighbourhood and Building Services, the implementation of
the plan and adjustments to the plan and spend, in the event that other funding sources become
available, in agreement with the Leader and S.151
officer. 
3.   
Asked the Tackling Poverty
Coordinator to continue to work with partner agencies and residents
to ensure we have a joined up, partnership approach to cost of
living support, making best use of resources across the statutory,
voluntary and community sectors.

4.   
Noted the Leader's letters sent to the Secretaries
of State at the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department
for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities shown in Appendix 2, and
agrees to continue to lobby Government for additional funding for
Local Authorities, to enable us to provide more comprehensive local
welfare provision and support to residents affected by the ongoing
cost of living crisis.
5.   
Placed on record their thanks for
the cross-directorate working group which has supported the
implementation of the delivery of the Household Support Fund in
2023/24 and produced a plan to sustain a package of cost of living
support throughout
2024/25.
6.   
Also placed on record a note of
special thanks to the teams across the Council who have delivered
support to residents affected by the cost of living crisis, and to
the Council's Tackling Poverty Coordinator and the Household
Support Fund delivery team who have administered the HSF in
2023/24.  The setting up of
a delivery team, designing application processes to deliver the
grant to households throughout the city in the same financial year
the grant was received is noted as exemplary work.