How did Big Local partnerships respond to the cost of living crisis in their communities?

In a long-term programme, unanticipated events occur, with the potential to disrupt delivery. During the Big Local programme, areas experienced ongoing challenges related to the rising cost of living, as well as specific moments of crisis (like the Covid-19 pandemic). The flexibility of Big Local funding helped partnerships respond when such crises arose, allowing them to shift their priorities to address residents’ changing needs. However, there was no obligation to do this and some partnerships continued with their chosen priorities to avoid disrupting existing plans. 

This article discusses the areas where partnerships chose to respond to the cost of living crisis, and what that response looked like. 

Local Trust has explored partnerships’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in another article.

The nature of the Big Local programme meant that, prior to the cost of living crisis, most partnerships were already addressing urgent needs in their communities. Projects tackling financial insecurity, housing, lack of local infrastructure, food insecurity, and health and wellbeing, were commonplace. The Big Local areas were selected due to their relative disadvantage to other parts of England, and so unmet needs were common among residents and therefore urgent. However, this article focuses on urgent needs created by crises – where the severity of residents’ unmet needs increased significantly or new challenges disrupted the delivery of Big Local. 

The Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis were the two most prominent crises that affected all Big Local areas. However, many areas faced additional local crises. For example, Ramsey Big Local provided sandbags and a flood support line in 2020 after local flooding. Mossley Big Local and Plaistow South responded to incidents of knife crime by funding knife bins and ​‘safe youth zones’ for young people to escape danger. In these instances, Big Local partnerships were able to respond to challenges because of the non-prescriptive nature of the funding, which enabled them to adapt plans and priorities according to changing local need.

Big Local areas were chosen based on factors including high levels of deprivation, lower social infrastructure, and historically low levels of local investment. This meant that, while the cost of living was a nationwide crisis, its effects were often felt more sharply in Big Local areas.

Local Trust ran a consultation about the cost of living crisis, with partnership members from 105 Big Local areas. The majority of respondents felt the main impacts in their communities were increased energy and food costs, and the resulting detrimental effect this would have on levels of poverty and poor mental health among residents (Local Trust, 2022). Many partnerships reported an increase in demand for local services, with more people accessing food banks and more residents reporting difficult financial circumstances. 

While community needs increased, the cost of living crisis created new barriers for delivery. Partnerships reported concerns about rising costs of bills, particularly for heating community hubs and spaces (Local Trust, 2022). Some partnerships had to change plans to develop or build new community spaces due to increased construction and labour costs, causing delays and interruptions. Partnership members spoke of how the uncertainty created by the crisis made it difficult to plan for the future, although the flexibility of Big Local funding provided some relief (Local Trust, 2022).

When considering the effectiveness of crisis responses, it is helpful to use the concept of community-led infrastructure (CLI). CLI explains how local leaders use groups, networks, relationships, and resources in a community. 

The most efficient crisis responses in Big Local were those of partnerships that already had robust CLI in place or worked to develop it as part of their response (Macmillan, 2020). Some partnerships felt that their experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the networks they built through their response, put them in a position to respond more quickly and efficiently to the cost of living crisis that followed. 

When the cost of living crisis emerged, many partnerships were already providing some form of financial support and access to food and healthy eating (Local Trust, 2022). So, in some cases existing provision could be expanded to accommodate increased demand. Other partnerships decided to restructure their priorities more significantly, to reallocate time and financial resources for new projects.

Food provision was one of the most common responses from Big Local partnerships to the cost of living crisis (Local Trust, 2022). Partnerships used a range of food-related relief programmes such as community meals, and food banks or pantries. 

With the proliferation of relief-focused services came the challenge of ensuring that residents retained a sense of dignity and self-reliance. In Brereton Big Local’s community shop this was achieved by having residents pay an annual fee of £2 and £5 for a weekly bag of groceries. 

In Ravensthorpe and Westwood, the partnership had already set up a community café to provide healthy meals to residents at a relatively low cost, using produce from their community garden. As the cost of living crisis increased local need, the partnership set up a community fridge and larder at the café which offered free fruit, vegetables, and other groceries to residents without eligibility criteria (like means testing).

Other food provision included community meals (like lunch clubs), emergency food parcels, food vouchers, and cookery classes to help residents get the most out of their weekly shop. Many partnerships also decided to support existing local provision (through financial or food donations, volunteering, or coordination), rather than setting up new projects. Big Local partnerships could act as connectors and provide referrals to residents to be able to access local provision. For example, Stoke North Big Local used their newsletter (The Big Chatter) to promote other organisations’ services, including a food bank, cook and eat courses, and lunch clubs.

Big Local funding was sometimes allocated to debt advice or money advice schemes; however the cost of living crisis saw a rapid increase in demand for these services in many areas (Local Trust, 2022). Many partnerships who were already delivering through Citizens Advice and local credit unions scaled up investment. Others, recognising the scale of the problem, sought out this support for the first time. 

Prospect Estate was one area where Big Local funding had been allocated to advice for several years through the local credit union, to support residents’ access to financial services, debt advice, and money management. When the cost of living crisis emerged, the partnership started working with energy provider SGN and Citizens Advice to deliver the Safe and Warm programme, which delivered energy advice to at least 948 households. 

It was important for Big Local partnerships to consider how to reach residents most in need of these services. The Prospect Estate Big Local partnership tackled this by running Debt Free Prospect – providing cost of living advice at local events. While the partnership in Stoke North worked with Citizens Advice to provide a drop-in clinic at a local food bank to help residents who might be in need of financial support. 

Some partnerships ran energy advice schemes to help residents reduce their energy bills. Once a month, the Whitley Bay partnership ran Energy Café from their community hub. They worked with Northern Powergrid to provide residents with tailored energy saving advice, free energy efficiency devices, and other support to keep their homes warm.

Some Big Local partnerships used their community hubs and spaces as a base for food provision, energy advice, and financial support services. Many also set up agreements with their local authority so Big Local spaces could serve as warm hubs, where residents could spend time, reducing the need to heat their own homes.

The Brinnington Big Local partnership secured funding from Stockport Council to run a warm hub in winter. This provided residents with a safe and warm space, access to food and hot drinks, and company. After seeing the demand, the partnership decided to make this a year-round service. Thanks to their strong reputation, Quaker Oats and Jason Manford chose Brinnington’s hub to film a campaign to highlight the benefits of the warm hub and, on the day of filming, Jason arrived with boxes of porridge donated by Quaker Oats.

Similarly, in Rudheath and Witton, the Big Local partnership worked with two churches and Rudheath Social Club to provide three ​‘warm days’ a week during winter. The partnership reflected that this particularly benefitted older residents; as well as providing food and warmth, it offered an opportunity to make new friends and be in the company of others.

As well as creating their own warm hubs, some Big Local partnerships also looked at ways to support other community venues to continue operating in the face of rising costs of running community buildings. In Rastrick, Big Local funding was allocated to support seven community buildings (including hubs, sports venues, and churches) to install solar panels, improve insulation, retrofit heat pumps, and switch to energy-saving lighting. This helped reduce their energy costs, made them more sustainable, and enabled them to continue running activities for residents.

Major national crises, such as the cost of living crisis, had the potential to disrupt many of the projects that Big Local partnerships planned at their inception. This reinforced the importance of Big Local’s flexible funding approach. Flexibility meant that partnerships could respond rapidly to local needs, sometimes more quickly and effectively than statutory services, given their local knowledge, access to flexible funds, and relatively limited bureaucratic burden. 

Partnerships’ responses highlight the importance of connection. Approaches to different forms of crisis and emergency were necessarily varied and specific to each location. However, empowered local networks of residents and VCS or grassroots organisations, with access to flexible resources, was central to effective emergency response – and helped encourage long-term solutions after the initial crisis was addressed.