Press release: £1m fund to fight the recession

The cash will be spent on a wide range of initiatives and partnerships aimed at helping firms, families and individuals to fight the credit crunch.

Councillor Peter Jones, Leader of the County Council said: “We've kept our promise on council tax with the recent announcement of the lowest rise in four years. Many people are feeling the pinch in the current recession so it's even more important that we do our bit and keep council tax bills as low as possible.

“We also know that the economic downturn will mean more people relying on our services and more businesses turning to us for advice. That's why we've set aside this funding to provide additional support. We'll be working with key partners, including voluntary and community organisations. We want to provide direct help where we can and also support our communities so that they can help themselves through these difficult times.”

Initiatives already underway to help during the recession include:

• Grants to the local Credit Unions – community-based savings and loans organisations – to make it easier for people to access loans and protect residents from the loan sharks. The County Council is promoting ethical saving with the unions.
• Helping people to claim benefits. Together with East Sussex Age Concern, the Council has, for a number of years, run a benefit take-up scheme for older people. The Council is now working on increasing benefit take-up for other groups.
• Supporting small businesses by offering more support and speeding up the payment of invoices. In November last year, the Council also provided £100,000 to enable Business Link Sussex to offer specialist help to local businesses.
• Help for families. Childcare, school uniforms and school meals can be expensive so there's a range of government and Council help including Children's Centres, nursery education support and, for families on low incomes, help with school meals and transport.
• Investing in services. The Council has just approved a billion pound building programme for new schools, libraries and roads over the next five years. But 80% of the programme is reliant on government grant. If the money does come through, it will help improve services and boost the local economy.

Residents and businesses can find out more by following the links on the right-hand side of this page, under 'Related pages'.

Contact the press team