Labour criticises West Northamptonshire Council's 'headline-grabbing numbers' around £1 million support pledge

A Labour councillor has criticised West Northamptonshire Council's (WNC) transparency over “headline-grabbing numbers” in their recent £1,000,000 support pledge.

The comments came after WNC announced on Wednesday (March 30) that an additional £1,000,000 would be committed to providing “those most in need” with immediate financial help in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed against shopping costs in a range of supermarkets.

The council announced that all previous recipients of the Household Support Fund (HSF) fuel voucher scheme will receive a payment of up to £80.

Meanwhile all house owner/renter recipients of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTR), both working and non- working and including pensioners, will receive a voucher payment of £50.

A grant provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was reportedly being used to fund the gesture.

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council said: “We are all seeing our cost-of-living rise, but for some this can mean having to decide if they are going to eat or heat their home and have hot water or have electricity or gas to cook with.

“In total, we will be providing support to 20,060 individuals. We are issuing these vouchers to those people who are most in need, hopefully helping to alleviate the financial pressures they are experiencing in meeting their increased fuel, heating and food bills.”

However Emma Roberts, who has recently taken over as leader of West Northamptonshire’s Labour Group after Gareth Eales stepped down, went on to ask several more questions of the council that they had not expanded upon in their initial announcement.

From these, the council confirmed that the money is coming from the “residual original HSF budget” running since December 2021 and that all recipients of the household support fund previously will get the payment without the need to apply.

The council also confirmed that the maximum fuel allowance is three £40 vouchers, totalling £120 maximum. Therefore if an application has been received through the standard HSF process that same resident will have their fuel vouchers made up to £120 maximum allowance.

If a household has already received one fuel voucher they will now receive two £40 vouchers but if they have taken all three fuel vouchers already they will not receive any more.

Cllr Roberts said: "I was pleased by some of the answers I have seen.

“But the point that I was making by asking those questions was that we didn’t know the answers to those questions.

"The local community groups and residents who this applies to don’t know those answers as the council’s release had none of the details they need.

“There seems to be a habit of sending out headline-grabbing figures like ‘£1,000,000 support’ without giving people the information to know exactly what that will entail.

"That’s what worries me. They put out the headline-grabbing figure, then we’re left to ask questions about what it actually means.”

Read the council’s full statement here.