Warwick District Council to fund new Citizens Advice staff to help people with cost-of-living pressures

The council’s cabinet approved £65,000 per year to pay for two full-time general advisers for the next three years.

The plan is to better cover key locations, including parish areas, community hubs, health centres, libraries, churches and faith groups with regular drop-in services for residents, providing face-to-face help close to where those in need live.

It is an addition to existing work at the Community Pantry, Lillington, and drop-in services at Hamilton Terrace and the Pump Rooms in Leamington.

The plans received cross-party backing from councillors but it was argued that success should be measured to ensure value for money and inform what happens long term.

Conservative group leader Councillor Andrew Day (Bishop’s Tachbrook) said: “We welcome this.

“The council has a history of supporting the food bank and directly trying to give our residents every possible guidance and advice, most recently with cost of living but also with winter fuel allowance issues and warm hubs. All of these steps make a real difference.

“The only request our group had was to have really clear performance measures so we can monitor progress at the end of each year.

“We don’t want to arrive at the end of the third year and think about whether to continue this or not, we want to have good dialogue and establish cross-council understanding about how effective this partnership is.

“It is serious money and it has a really serious job to do.”

Councillor Judy Falp (Whitnash Residents, Whitnash) agreed.

“I would like to see which areas they have worked in – we know that there is rural poverty as well as urban – and see how many contacts they have made,” she added.

“We can’t wait until the end of year three, did it work, didn’t it work, we need reports every 12 months.”

Councillor Jim Sinnott (Lab, Warwick Saltisford), the district’s portfolio holder for communities and leisure, noted that “a broad suite of indicators, narratives and ways we want to feed back” had been laid out in a confidential appendix available to councillors.

“This is great news and much needed,” he added.

“We will be out, going far and wide, not just the usual hubs, and that should be a measure of our success.”