Councillors announced the launch of the first tranche of Community Hubs, to be rolled out across the borough to support residents and provide the help they need nearer to where they live, as Barking and Dagenham Council approved its budget proposals for 2022/23 at a full council meeting on Wednesday, 2 March.  

As people face the biggest cost of living crisis in years, the new Hubs will provide a range of targeted support including money, benefits and debt advice, access to food and support, jobs and training, family and parenting support and help to support resident’s health and wellbeing.

The first three Community Hubs will open at Marks Gate, William Bellamy and Sue Bramley later this month, with more to follow, providing a network of hubs across the borough later this year.

Our residents face the biggest cost of living crisis in years but we stand alongside them, and we'll continue to support them every step of the way.

Councillor Dominic Twomey, the council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services, said: “Our residents face the biggest cost of living crisis in years with high rents, increasing taxes and fuel prices going through the roof, and now huge heating bills. But we stand alongside them, and we will continue to support them every step of the way.

“Our new Community Hubs will be located in the heart of our communities and will provide the early support our residents need, so we can really support people to tackle problems like growing household debt before they become a bigger problem.

“After more than a decade of Government cuts, we face huge challenges with ever increasing pressures. Our core funding has been cut from £121m to £76m in less than 10 years. That means, for every £1 we received a decade ago, we receive just 63p today. 

“Things are really tough and the last thing we want to do is raise Council Tax, but we are left with no choice if we are to maintain local services and support the most vulnerable. We’ll continue to do everything we can to create new jobs and grow the local economy. We’ve secured £4billion worth of investment in recent years and we will continue to support residents and businesses as we come out of the pandemic.”

Our new Community Hubs will be located in the heart of our communities and will provide the early support our residents need.

The council’s budget includes investment totalling £181.9million across schools, highways, bins, and housing.

Around £11million will be invested over four years into the early help service to provide specialist intervention. The service helps address issues including physical and mental health, domestic abuse, money and debt issues, and addiction, as well as providing further help for parents and carers.

Other areas in line for further investment over the next four years include over £4m on waste and recycling, and around £1m on street cleaning as part of the council’s commitment to create a cleaner, greener borough. A further £600,000 will be invested to the Youth Zone facility, to help give the borough’s young people the best start in life.

A Council Tax increase of 1.99 per cent with an additional 1 per cent ringfenced for adult social care services will add around 78p per week onto a Band D property (excluding the GLA element).

Cllr Twomey added: “This year’s funding settlement from the Government doesn’t add up to more money for councils like ours. Between 2010 and 2020 we were forced to find £175m savings. But we are doing our bit. We are also generating income through our council-owned companies which raises the equivalent of a 30% rise in Council Tax.”  

“No one likes to pay more, but the approach of the council is to provide the support our residents need to help them through these tough times while investing in the future – such as our film studios and attracting new investment, like the three markets of London - to generate growth and prosperity for the benefit of our residents.”