Ards and North Down Borough Council has failed to commit to a fuel hardship fund for its vulnerable citizens.
At a recent special meeting of the full Ards and North Down Council, elected representatives commissioned a paper into looking at how those most in need in the borough could be helped during the winter, but stopped short of voting for a fuel hardship fund.
Councillors cited problems facing Belfast City Council ’s rollout of the fund, where a £60,000 household income threshold was criticised, as well as its first-come-first-serve basis and difficulties for applicants getting the money from local community organisations. Other councillors also noted the expectation of a significant hike in the rates for the borough later this month as a reason they could not commit to the fund.
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During the meeting, elected representatives voted through an Alliance Party motion forwarded by Councillor Hannah Irwin. A Green Party motion to immediately go ahead with a hardship fund was voted down.
The Alliance motion states: “This council recognises the significant cost of living hardship facing the many residents in Ards and North Down, and directs officers to urgently complete a report outlining options for how we can best support our residents.
“This should include consideration of a potential hardship fund following liaison with counterparts in other district councils in Northern Ireland around the nature and delivery of similar schemes, and liaison with local organisations and charities who specialise in delivering financial support around how the council can best provide support for their services.
“This council will also write to the Department of Communities and the Northern Ireland Office to request that funding is provided to councils (and that it is ring-fenced in the 2023/24 budget) to assist with the implementation of any such support schemes. Given the urgency of the matter, this report should be ready for the meeting of the full Council on 26th January 2023.”
Councillor Hannah Irwin said: “We should not be making any decisions without due diligence and seeing the evidence to back them up. The motion refers to the potential for a hardship fund, and for the potential of supporting local organisations.
“We would like officers to do some work in the background to determine what this might look like, as there are far too many questions at this point, and far too much left undetermined for us to possibly make a financial decision on this.
“We are in the beneficial position where two councils in Northern Ireland are already in the process of implementing hardship funds. We should be contacting Belfast City Council and Derry City and Strabane Council to hear about their experiences of designing their schemes - what issues did they come up against, were there any mistakes made, and was there anything at all they would do differently if they could?”
DUP Alderman Stephen McIlveen told the chamber: “I will be voting for the substantive Alliance motion, and the reason is it doesn’t restrict us to only a hardship fund. We will be looking at other means by which to assist and support the needy within Ards and North Down.
“In all of this debate we have to be mindful we are in the middle of a rates setting process, and we are being essentially asked to gut our services at the moment to try and get something that is manageable for our ratepayers out there. It is a difficult situation for us to try and balance at the best of times.”
UUP Councillor Philip Smith said: “I don’t believe it is the function of the council to undertake this type of funding. I don’t believe the council has the capability or experience to administer a hardship fund effectively, and the dead weight of the administration costs and the lack of targeting of help concerns me.
“Spending the amount needed to make any tangible difference in that sort of scheme, especially as experienced by Belfast City Council and Derry and Strabane, would indicate we would need something in the region of £750,000. Which would be unaffordable without hiking rates further cutting our services. I don’t think that is the way forward.”
He added: “I have alluded to the experiences in Belfast, and members may have seen the press reports of the council meeting, and the performance or perhaps lack of, of the scheme they have rolled out. It highlights many of the potential problems, and I think we would also face the same difficulties if we embark on a similar scheme.
“The allocations there have been on a first-come-first-serve basis, and I believe this has made it a lottery as to who receives the money available. I think there are better ways of helping those in severe need, and ensuring that resources are targeted immediately and the best way for those who need it.”
SDLP Councillor Joe Boyle said: “What I heard from the other two councils was one was a nightmare and the other was a disaster. We don’t want to get this spectacularly wrong.”
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