A survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in November 2022 found that 77% of people reported an increase in their cost of living compared to the previous month.
As the price of food, energy bills and fuel continue to rise, STAR Housing is committed to exploring and undertaking various actions, working to help make life easier for the tenants needing our support the most.
We’ve identified significant funding for use in the coming months with several clear aims, including the following:
People shouldn’t have to decide between heating their homes properly and eating well.
Our Head of Neighbourhoods, Ayyaz Ahmed, said: “At STAR Housing, we recognise the impact the cost of living crisis is having within our communities and are committed to exploring a range of actions for those tenants that need our support the most. We have identified funding for these projects and we'll announce more in the weeks ahead.”
In the meantime, and with the total backing of our Board, we’re investing in four initiatives to keep our tenants and communities safe and warm this winter.
Our Independent Living Communities (ILCs) provide 326 one and two-bedroom homes for elderly and/or vulnerable tenants. To help people with their heating bills and to reduce the harmful impacts of social isolation, we’re promoting our ILC community rooms as ‘warm banks’. These will be a heated space that residents can use seven days a week, grab free warm drinks and refreshments and chat with others in their community.
We’ve also ordered new TVs for each of the facilities so people can enjoy social occasions such as film nights while allowing them to reduce the need to heat their homes while attending.
We’ve contacted the food banks in Bridgnorth and Oswestry and other, similar facilities in our more rural communities. We plan to make a donation to these food banks to help those in need and reduce the burden of donations on local people during this difficult time.
We’re keen to extend our support beyond the purely financial and with that in mind, STAR Housing staff will attend food banks regularly to offer advice to any of our tenants visiting the facilities.
We would like to tell you about an innovative partnership we have developed with the team at OsNosh, a community interest company, to help our tenants and residents eat well for less in these times of rising food and energy prices.
We are offering a free cookery course plus a free slow cooker to every household taking part in the course with the aim of helping our tenants produce their own healthy and tasty meals from low cost ingredients in a way that is energy efficient.
The cookery classes will be held at OsNosh community kitchen at The Centre, Oak Street, Oswestry every Wednesdays from 10.30am to 11.30am in a three-week rolling programme. The OsNosh team will also be bringing the classes to our STAR Housing community centres across the north of the county.
The project aims to help our customer to cook their own healthy and nutritious meals on a budget. The sessions will include cookery methods including how to make best use of a slow cooker, tips on how to shop and manage costs plus energy saving tips.
As well as helping to reduce costs and food wastage, these classes will bring people together so they can eat, keep warm and meet new people. At the moment, these lessons will only take place in Oswestry and the surrounding rural areas, but we are keen to replicate this really exciting project in the south of the county too – please get in touch if you know of a provider that can help deliver this.
Shropshire Council has compiled a list of venues that are open to the general public. Currently, most of those listed are public buildings such as libraries but more are being added regularly.
Several smaller organisations and charities would like to open up village halls and other community venues but lack funding. At STAR Housing, we’re delighted to help in locations where we have homes. Our support will help to pay for the following:
These initiatives are just some ways we’re planning to assist our tenants and communities through the difficult winter ahead.
Check our support initiatives on our website for other programmes and activities. We’ll be sharing more details on the cost of living investment on this page in the coming weeks and months.
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