Community Development Team Impact Report 2024

*The Community Development team also accessed Household Support Funding for our food clubs and supported the delivery of UK Shared Prosperity Funding to a range of projects including the Banstead Pantry and Employment and Skills related projects.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

In 2022 RBBC was tasked by the Department for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) – now the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) - to develop a three-year UKSPF Investment Plan, outlining the way in which the borough’s £1 million UKSPF allocation would be spent over the life of the programme. Projects began from January 2023 and were completed by March 2025. During the life of this funding programme the CD team worked with partners to deliver the following projects (the figure in the table above only shows the funding allocated in 2024):

Supporting residents in fuel poverty

Funding: £44,998 spent (over the full life of the funding)

Summary: Funding over three years to support local delivery partners, Raven Housing Trust, Surrey Community Action and the Good Company, to deliver energy audits to low-income households and funded solutions to help them save energy and therefore money on their household bills.

Outputs and outcomes: In total, 257 households have been supported over the three years and 48 households assisted to take up energy efficiency measures.

Banstead Food Pantry

Funding: £69,000 spent (over the full life of the funding)

Summary: Funding provided to the Good Company in the form of a grant to establish a Food Pantry in Banstead. The Pantry supports residents struggling with the rising cost of living.

Outputs and outcomes: Since opening in October 2024, 174 households have been supported by the Pantry and members have made a total of 1,792 shops saving a combined £53,760 on their grocery shopping bills over the first six months. 30 individuals have also attended energy advice and financial advice workshops as well as sewing classes for children. Both the Good Company and Raven Housing Trust have made commitments to support the project going forward.

Improving community access to greenspace

Funding: £4,786 spent (over the full life of the funding)

Summary: Funding has been used for a variety of projects supporting people from target communities to access greenspaces as well as for the improvement of community greenspaces for the benefit of residents. The UKSPF Local Partnership Group approved the reallocation of additional revenue spend from another project to expand the project beyond the scope of the original Investment Plan, including:

• Free and subsidised spaces on Leafy Learners activities for children who would otherwise not be able to afford to access these outdoor learning events.
• First Aid Training for Woodhatch Greenspaces Preservation Group to build capacity.
• Providing the bulbs planted by 30+ community volunteers to improve community space for residents of Timperley Gardens
• Merstham Parks and Greens were funded to provide a bench in one of their nature gardens to increase uptake by local people who might need to be able to sit while accessing the space.
• Surrey Care Trust’s Community Composting Project was provided with funding towards the costs of setting up a community composting project.

Outputs and outcomes: In total, 22 children from low-income families were supported to take part in Leafy Learner Forest School activities in their school holidays. Five events were delivered and there was engagement with 54 members of the community.

Employment & Skills Support in our CD areas

Funding: £35,600 spent (full amount spent in 2024/5)

Summary: The original allocation was increased by £29k from underspend elsewhere in the UKSPF programme and community partners were invited to submit grant applications to deliver employment and skills support sessions to local residents furthest from the labour market. These included:

• A project with East Surrey College to use virtual reality to help people train for careers in the Care Sector (a sector which struggles to recruit locally);
• An online tool from Naturally Talented Me to help people uncover hidden talents and open up their job searches;
• A digital access project from Raven Housing Trust which purchased 4 laptops to lend to people through their Work Smart programme to help them access online training
• A digital inclusion project from Surrey Care Trust working ontheir digital skills in relation to job searching and CV writing as well as online banking,

Outputs and outcomes:

• 161 residents were supported to engage in life skills.
• 100 young people and adults have had the opportunity to use the VR kit to experience what it is like to work in the care sector and to find out about training opportunities.
• 44 individuals have used the ‘Discover Me’ tool to help them uncover hidden talents and open up their job searches.
• 2 people currently using laptops to access online training
• 15 people have been supported to job search with two finding part-time work and one becoming self-employed.