The south west is to receive £67 million from the fund to support schemes including free school meals during holidays and emergency help with housing costs.
The fund, launched on April 1, replaces England’s Household Support Fund and Discretionary Housing Payments with a single streamlined grant, aiming to improve access to crisis support.
The South West will receive £67 million from the Crisis and Resilience Fund (Image: NQ)
Pat McFadden, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said: “The launch of the new £1bn Crisis and Resilience Fund marks a genuine turning point in how this government supports families before hardship takes hold.”
The funding, confirmed through to March 31, 2029, provides long-term certainty for councils and enables better planning of crisis prevention services.
Andrew Forsey OBE, national director of Feeding Britain, welcomed the announcement.
He said: “The Crisis and Resilience Fund will play a key role in helping to end the mass dependence on emergency food parcels from food banks.”
The fund forms part of the government’s wider Child Poverty Strategy, which aims to lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament.
The strategy includes free school meals for all children in Universal Credit households, expanded childcare access for working parents on Universal Credit, and the removal of the two-child benefit limit.
The fund also underpins broader efforts to address the cost of living, including an increase to the National Living Wage, an average £150 cut to household energy bills, and a freeze on rail and prescription charges.