Worcester City Council to consider enhanced cost of living help

Worcester City Council's policy and resources committee will discuss the measures

A local authority is to consider further measures to help residents amid the rising cost of living.

Worcester City Council will discuss moves to provide enhanced help to low-income families at its policy and resources committee meeting on Tuesday.

They include a recommendation to provide school meals vouchers during holidays up until March.

It comes after the local authority declared a cost of living crisis in July.

The committee will also consider a recommendation to give £20,000 to the city's Citizen's Advice Bureau.

That would allow it to employ an extra supervisor, which in turn would allow for 10 extra volunteers to be trained to offer more debt assessments. It would also enable its office to open for an extra morning of drop-in sessions each week.

There is also a further recommendation to extend the time that households can claim their summer holiday school meals vouchers until the end of September.

The authority is also proposing providing up to £255,000 from reserves to help a leisure centre group amid rising energy costs

A typical household's gas and electricity bill will rise to £3,549 a year from October, Ofgem announced on Friday, after it increased the price cap on household bills by 80%.

"These are difficult times for so many people and these important proposals will make a significant difference to households in the greatest need," said Councillor Lynn Denham, vice-chair of the committee.

"I hope the committee will back these measures."

• What can I do if I can't pay my energy bill?

• What is the energy price cap and what will I actually pay?

• How will I get the cost-of-living payments?

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Worcester City Council was also looking to hand over up to £255,000 from its reserves to Freedom Leisure, which runs Perdiswell Leisure Centre, St John's Sports Centre and Nunnery Wood Sports Complex on its behalf, to help cover the soaring cost of gas and electricity.

Freedom Leisure, which is having to renegotiate its tariffs next month, said it expected bills to rise by at least £252,000 this financial year and anticipates the cost of energy to escalate by a whopping £506,000 extra over the coming years.

The proposal will be discussed at the same meeting.