Observer column 27 September 2024

Last week I was out in the town centre with my deputy, Councillor Glenn Haffenden, in the first of what will be monthly out-and-about drop-in sessions where we listen to your issues and concerns. The focus of our first one was to remind people to check whether they or friends and family are eligible for pension credit, which is now the only way to ensure receipt of the winter fuel payment.

It's clear that many pensioners are angry at the government's decision to cut access to this payment and are worried about their winter fuel bills, so we were happy to hear that Hastings HEART along with Citizens Advice 1066 are staging an Energy Day on Tuesday, 8 October, from 1 - 4pm at the Community Info Hub in Hastings Town Hall. At this event, organisations such as East Sussex Warm Home Check Service, National Energy Action, and Orbit Housing will offer advice on how to access support and how to keep warm and well this winter.

At full council last week a motion was passed to call on the government to end the two-child benefit cap and to set up a town-wide working group work on the development of a local plan to combat the problem of growing child poverty. One of the new Labour government's missions is economic growth. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) recently published a report on Health and Prosperity which makes clear that childhood health should be considered just as important to our long-term economic prosperity as childhood education. They call for a health plan that includes universal free school meals, the restoration of the Sure Start aid programme for families with children up to four years of age, and an end to the two-child cap on benefits. One of the co-chairs of the UK's Commission on Health and Prosperity has said that "better health is Britain's greatest untapped resource for happiness, economic growth and national prosperity." As a council we are committed to putting improving good health at the heart of everything we do, and hope that the new Labour government will do the same.

It's clear that the two projects of tackling the health crisis and addressing climate change are closely intertwined, so it gave me great pleasure to announce last week that our council has joined UK100, the growing network of councils who aim to slash carbon emissions while building greener, fairer places. The group enables councils to share best practices and to lobby government for greater powers and funding for crucial undertakings in this regard - such as insulating draughty houses, which addresses fuel poverty while at the same time reducing energy use. I hope the new government will act on its commitment to devolve more powers away from Whitehall toward local councils, giving us more powers and funding to create the new jobs and green skills that we so obviously need in our progress toward a zero-carbon economy.