Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Cemeteries and Crematoria) provided the following update:

a)    Libraries would start to sell a small selection of stationary items including pens, envelopes, bulldog clips and document holders and the additional income would be used for the library service;

b)    ‘Donate a Coat’ programme would be added to the library service in which the public would donate a coat to someone in need, coat racks with the donated articles would be shown at the Central Library and Plympton, Plymstock, St Budeaux and Southway libraries with a book and a Christmas Card in the pocket for vulnerable people to take;

c)     The library service would also be offering 11 spaces across the city for keeping people warm and to alleviate loneliness;

d)    16 Days of Activism for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) would start on 25^th November, starting with the Orange Plymouth Peace Walk;

Councillor Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport, Leisure and HR & OD) provided the following updates:

e)    £21 million would be invested into the Brickfields sports site with three planning applications submitted, one for Brickfields, one for the hockey pitch at Stoke Damerel and one for Petanque;

f)     2500 people had still accessed the cost of living hub over the past four weeks proving the need for welcoming spaces;

g)    Talk Money week took place to encourage people to access financial help rather than struggling;

h)    Warm Spaces Programme had stared and encouraged smaller places to apply to the Household Support fund to access funding which would help open community spaces for people to go and keep warm;

i)     Third Food Club had been opened, where the public would pay a small amount to be a member to access good quality food at a more reasonable price and the Public could receive lessons in food and how to manage a budget;

j)     Plymouth Active Leisure came second for the Best Marketing Campaign category at the UK Active Awards;

k)    The Fit and Fed programme offered 1,966 family swims at the Life Centre during October half term;

l)     The Life Centre offered numerous events including youth climbing series, swim leagues, a Plymouth Raider’s basketball match and a boxing event at the sports hall.

Councillor Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) provided the following update:

m)  Adult Safeguarding Awareness week would take place 20 – 24 November 2023 and would include the following: partnership representatives spending time in the City’s health and wellbeing hubs, raising awareness of people’s experiences and signposting;

n)    A video would be posted highlighting safeguarding issues that adults may face and how help and support could be provided, focusing on abuse, neglect, wellbeing, homelessness, and promoting the message: ‘Everyone had the right to live their lives free from violence, fear and abuse’.

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) provided the following update:

o)    Plymouth City Council’s Cabinet Advisory Group on Child Poverty would look at longer term solutions to the Cost of Living Crisis and how they would be integrated into long term work on tackling poverty within the city;

p)    Ten years ago Plymouth was awarded status as a Social Enterprise City, being the first Social Enterprise City in the UK and had recently received positive feedback about how supportive the Council and Administration had been regarding Social Enterprise in Plymouth;

q)    Special thanks was given to The Rank Foundation for investing £5.75 million in Social Enterprise development in the city over the past seven years;

r)    Meetings held with the private rented sector had been replaced with meetings with Southwest Landlords Association, focusing on issues such as damp and mould, pest control in houses of multiple occupancy (HMO), and dealing with anti-social behaviour;

s)     It was agreed that over a period of 15 months the Southwest Landlords Association would be carrying a substantial number of articles from Plymouth City Council in their newsletter;

t)     Literature regarding legislative changes had been distributed to landlords to ensure they were up to date prior to license renewal;

u)    Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates were too low to meet the cost of renting in Plymouth, which meant there were no properties to let at the LHA rate and so more people had approached the Council as homeless or threatened with homelessness;

v)    A Housing Taskforce had been set up with a recovery plan to try and bring impetus from across the Council into providing solutions into the crisis, meaning there had been reduced numbers of households in Bed and Breakfasts;

w)   The Council had worked with Plymouth Alliance to support them by providing loans to enable them to take on more accommodation to help those most vulnerable, including a loan to both Plymouth Access to Housing and Young Devon to support an additional 20 units of accommodation;

x)    A bid for additional money had been submitted through the Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme that would see approximately 80 additional unit of accommodation brought online.

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) provided the following update:

y)    A consultation drop-in session would take place at the Guildhall on 22 November 2023 from 12pm to 7pm and would be open to all in the local community to hear questions and views on the proposed development of the Community Diagnostic Centre at Colin Campbell Court.