Decision details

A grant offer of £135,196 was received on 10 July from Alison Ismail, Director of Agri-Food Chain Directorate, Defra, in relation to the Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant for Food and Essential Supplies.
This grant of £63 million was announced by the Prime Minister on 10 June for local authorities in England to help those who are struggling to afford food and other essentials due to COVID-19. The funding is a one-off contribution for the 2020-21 financial year and is made under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003.

A decision is needed regarding how it should be spent.

Financial/staffing/health & safety (incl virus transmission risks)/service delivery impacts/other risks and impacts considered:
The proposed expenditure is the same as the grant accepted hence no cost to the Council. Limited officer time needed to deploy the grant. The services the grant will be used to procure address priorities identified in the Impact of Covid 19 report considered by COE and informal cabinet in May 2020.

Equality Impacts:
Considered that this scheme was more likely to help those with protected characteristics but no EIA was undertaken when making the decision.

That £115,000 be allocated to secure additional Bread and Butter Thing provision and £20,196 be allocated to CAB to engage hard to reach groups through The Bread and Butter Thing.

Reason: That this is the most effective way of deploying the resource in line with the funding criteria.

Alternative ways of providing emergency food and essential supplies were considered. None of the other options were as advantageous or self-sustaining as those agreed.