Representation by Citizens Advice Luton (Citizens Advice Luton)
- Date submitted
- 22 June 2023
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
I have been pleased to learn that Luton Rising has submitted its application for the long-term sustainable growth at the airport. We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the benefit we receive from the company and express support for its objectives, and the application for development consent. Citizens Advice Luton (CAL) has been providing free, confidential and impartial advice and support to the residents of Luton for over 30 years. Our goal is to help everyone find a way forward, whatever problem they face. We empower local people and ensure they get the advice they need for the issues they face. We also look to improve the local policies and practices that affect their lives through active research and campaigning. We value diversity, promote equality and challenge discrimination in our service. With recent cuts in funding, we have less resources to deliver our service and have had to make difficult decisions over the past two years: with redundancies and having to agree to a deficit budget, it has been a worrying time for staff and the Board of Trustees. But we remain extremely grateful to Luton Rising who have continued to provide funding to CAL even at the height of the pandemic. Without this funding, we would not have been able to open our front doors during the pandemic to deliver our much needed service. Many of our clients have been detrimentally impacted by the pandemic and we have seen a marked increase in the number of clients suffering with a mental health disability visiting CAL for enhanced support. We have also seen the impact of the Cost of Living crisis – there has been a huge increase in clients visiting us for fuel and/or food voucher support. It is vital that we are able to continue providing our service to support the local community. The funding from Luton Rising’s Community Investment Fund enables us to provide our drop in advice service together with our digital service including email and Freephone telephone advice allowing more people to reach our service. Citizens Advice Luton could not have opened its doors in 1992 without the support of Luton Borough Council who provided our core funding for our general advice service for many years. Due to changes in the funding structure, we then received funding direct from London Luton Airport Ltd (now Luton Rising) and more recently Bedfordshire and Luton Community Fund have distributed the Community Investment Fund on behalf of Luton Rising. Without this funding, we would not be able to provide our general advice service. If the funding is withdrawn or reduced any further, Citizens Advice Luton would have to make some very difficult decisions and possibly close our front doors – this would be detrimental for the thousands of clients we advise every year. From April 2022 to March 2023, over 17,000 people benefited from our service. Our advisers dealt with 42,808 issues and demand continues to increase. In 2022/2023, with the support from Luton Rising’s CIF fund: - We helped our clients to increase their income by a staggering £6,376,119. - Our debt team helped over 1,700 families with nearly £6.9million of arrears of which £4.254 million were for priority debts. The value of debt advice to the people we helped was: £3,465,751. - We issued hundreds of families in desperate need with food and fuel vouchers. For every £1 invested in our service in 2022/23 we generated: - £5.59 in savings to government and public services (fiscal value): Total £3,558,559 - £42.62 in wider economic and social benefits (public value): Total £27,146,889 - £15.73 in financial value to the people we help (specific outcomes): Total £10,020,052 - Public value of improving clients’ wellbeing: £20,154,504 - Savings to our local authority by preventing homelessness and housing evictions: £349,469 - Total saving to NHS: £633,071 - Total saving to DWP (by keeping people in work): £1,471,960 We work closely with our Luton Access partners: Luton Irish Forum, Luton Law Centre and Luton Rights, working together to relieve poverty and disadvantage. CAL is the lead partner for the Luton Access initiative and applies to the Community Investment Fund on behalf of the three other organisations. The support from Luton Rising enables us to work together providing a streamlined advice service to our clients. CAL fully supports the airport expansion as this will increase employment opportunities for Luton residents and also increase the Community Investment Fund pot by an additional £13million per year by the mid 2040’s (the fund was £9million in 2019 maintained at £7.4million during the pandemic). Additional capacity within the CIF fund will allow us to apply for increased funding to expand our service. CAL is a member of Luton Borough Council’s Inclusive Economy Board and has committed to their Luton 2040 initiative with our pledge to include: - increasing our volunteer numbers and providing comprehensive training and support giving volunteers the knowledge and experience they need to gain local employment - working with National Citizens Advice on their Net Zero Strategy providing impactful local research data to effect policy change Our pledge mirrors the work that Luton Rising is doing as part of their planned expansion – skills and training for local people and green controlled sustainable growth. As a fellow member of Luton’s Fairness Taskforce, we are working together with a number of organisations, including Luton Rising, on ensuring these commitments are achieved. Our Board of Trustees fully supports the airport expansion and our pledge and commitment to the shared objectives. We remain extremely grateful to Luton Rising for their continued support for Citizens Advice Luton and will continue to work with them to build better lives in Luton and making Luton a place to thrive. Stephanie Simeon Chief Executive Citizens Advice Luton