RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed the Merton Council Cost-of-Living Strategy and Action Plan 2023-25, attached at Appendix I.

B. That Cabinet agreed the indicative proposals for the second tranche of the Cost-of-Living Emergency Support Fund, as set out in Table 1 and at paragraphs 3.10-3.31, including further development of proposals around the CroydonPlus, the Credit Union for Merton, Sutton and Croydon, set out at 3.20.

C. That Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Interim Executive Director for Innovation and Change, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Finance and Corporate Services to make the final decisions relating to this second tranche of funding.

D. Following receipt of the Household Support Fund guidelines on 20 February, that Cabinet delegated authority to the Interim Executive Director for Innovation and Change, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Finance and Corporate Services to make allocations of this fund.

E. That Cabinet noted further work to support residents since the last update report to Cabinet in January

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services presented the report, thanking officers and the Cost of Living Working Group for their work.

Following declaration of the Cost of Living Emergency in July 2022, the Council had allocated the first £1m of funding in Autumn 2022 and the second £1m and the action plan for the following two years was detailed within the report being presented. The Cabinet Member provided an overview of how the funding would be spent and noted that there would be face to face events taking place and that additional potential funding pots would be kept under review.

In response to questions from Cabinet Members, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services responded that the Council would be working with the Croydon Merton and Sutton Credit Union to help setup junior saver accounts for all Year 7 children this year and would provide £20 to each account, and £10 to every adult that opened a trustee account. The Council would use the data the Council held to ensure that support was targeted.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed the Merton Council Cost-of-Living Strategy and Action Plan 2023-25, attached at Appendix I.

B. That Cabinet agreed the indicative proposals for the second tranche of the Cost-of-Living Emergency Support Fund, as set out in Table 1 and at paragraphs 3.10-3.31, including further development of proposals around the CroydonPlus, the Credit Union for Merton, Sutton and Croydon, set out at 3.20.

C. That Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Interim Executive Director for Innovation and Change, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Finance and Corporate Services to make the final decisions relating to this second tranche of funding.

D. Following receipt of the Household Support Fund guidelines on 20 February, that Cabinet delegated authority to the Interim Executive Director for Innovation and Change, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Finance and Corporate Services to make allocations of this fund.

E. That Cabinet noted further work to support residents since the last update report to Cabinet in January