For the last few years, Stoke-on-Trent City Council has distributed the Household Support Fund across Stoke-on-Trent. Ensuring this has reached the most needy and vulnerable has involved creating innovative schemes that have enabled local groups and organisations to distribute the funds. As a result, I was asked to share our approach at a special one-off enquiry by the Work and Pensions Committee in the House of Commons this week.
You can watch the session here on Parliament tv.
*UPDATE*
Although the session was about Stoke-on-Trent’s scheme, the wider conversation was an opportunity to talk about the important role that local authorities place, and whether they are better placed to know their areas and therefore how residents are best supported, than central government. This debate has featured in the local government press, including this piece in the Local Government Chronicle, and this piece in the Municipal Journal.
