Bristol City Council to spend £4m on winter support

The funding is part of a nationwide government scheme

A council will receive £4m from the government to help vulnerable people this winter.

Bristol City Council's Household Support Fund will go towards free school meals during holidays and helping people with unaffordable energy bills.

The spending plan was approved by council leaders at a cabinet meeting on 1 November.

But Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said the plan is "heartening, but not enough".

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the fund will be used to help people get through the winter months as inflation rises and the economy enters another recession.

Deputy mayor Craig Cheney, cabinet member for finance, said: "We will be spending £1.9m on free school meals for children during October, Christmas, February and Easter; £709,000 will be given to various charities to assist low-income households with food and fuel poverty; £350,000 to add to the local crisis prevention fund; and £220,000 to assist care leavers and foster families with food and heating costs."

'It's not enough'

Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said: "That list is actually in line with what we're trying to get done.

"We want to be ambitious for the city but ambitious in a way that's compassionate and inclusive. In the middle of all this it's a heartening list to go through. It's not enough, but it is heartening."

Bristol City Council plans to allocate the funds to the relevant services between October 2022 and March 2023.