The government has announced a £7.5 million funding package to help tackle loneliness over the winter period, supporting sectors that are well known for bringing people and communities together such as the arts, libraries, charities and radio.

With millions of people now under the new Tier 4 COVID-19 restrictions due to the spread of a new variant, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has thanked those who are continuing to spread festive cheer and tackling loneliness, while urging us all to look out for our neighbours.

Two schemes have been highlighted as going that extra mile:

• Poole Housing Partnership which established a call service for older and vulnerable residents to enjoy regular chats with friendly volunteers.
• Your Homes Newcastle was also praised for delivering homemade Christmas meals to their older residents to spread the festive cheer.

These are just two examples of vital work by housing associations to tackle the social effects of COVID-19 across England since the government launched its ‘Charter for Social Housing Residents’ last month.

These landmark reforms will improve the lives of residents by giving them a much greater voice and more power to hold landlords to account, and help them to establish strong networks to combat social isolation and loneliness.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

None of us have never known a Christmas like this. While we may have had smaller and quieter Christmases than normal, for some people this Christmas will have been especially hard – and very lonely. That’s why I’m encouraging people to find other ways to reach out virtually and help combat loneliness – by picking up the phone or writing a letter, for example.

Let’s all do what we can to connect with our older neighbours – in a Covid-secure way – so they feel less alone and know how valuable they are to their communities at this difficult time.

The charity Age UK estimates that there are approximately 1.4 million chronically lonely older people in England.

The government has been working to tackle loneliness during the pandemic. Over £24 million of the £750 million charity funding package has gone directly towards reducing loneliness, and a further £45 million to organisations supporting people with their mental health.

In June the government relaunched its long-running campaign, Let’s Talk Loneliness. If you’re lonely or looking to help others, there is lots of helpful advice and support on the Let’s Talk Loneliness website.

The government has also announced it will launch a new campaign to highlight the Charter for Social Housing Residents in February 2021. The campaign will highlight what the changes will mean for residents and how they can access support.

Poole Housing Partnership

Poole Housing Partnership (PHP) has been working to support their residents through the pandemic. 

They put in place a call service in which vulnerable residents received regular phone calls to check in on their wellbeing and signpost them to supporting agencies such as the council volunteer service or onto the NHS.

One resident named Chris asked whether they could call other people rather than just receiving a call from PHP. Other residents agreed it was a great idea and that it would hopefully lead to new friendships. PHP now has 25 befrienders who each call between 5 to 10 people a week, and the numbers keep growing. 

PHP has a long-standing relationship with Fareshare which operates out of 13 PHP hubs across Poole. Run by residents for residents, Fareshare ran a café service that had to close last March due to social distancing requirements.

With support from PHP to source equipment, the Fareshare service transformed itself into a food delivery service and has been creating food parcels and meals for over 150 households each week. PHP residents cook the food and PHP staff and other residents deliver it to those who normally attended the café service or to those we had been identified on the calls as in need.  

This has gone some way to tackling loneliness with residents increasingly involved in leading or supporting the food services. 

Your Homes Newcastle

Food Nation, a food charity based in Newcastle, applied to YHN’s Community Investment Fund to deliver group cooking sessions to help bring people together who were socially isolated so they could spend time in company and develop new skills.

The pandemic meant that couldn’t go ahead in person, so their volunteers are cooking meals themselves and delivering them along with a socially distanced chat.

Additionally, one of YHN’s Board member’s children and their classmates wanted to write cards for older people who might not receive one otherwise. The Board member contacted YHN’s housing manager, Helen, and her staff identified double the number of people to the cards available.

Helen contacted her daughter’s school, and her class made cards for the remaining half. YHN staff are going to support the older people to write thank you letters to the children, as they don’t often have people to write to either.

Christopher Carr (28), of Manchester, was the director of Carr’s BK Ltd. The company was incorporated in July 2017 but was wound up in court in November 2019 and the Official Receiver was appointed as liquidator.

The Official Receiver investigated Christopher Carr’s conduct as director of the company before uncovering he had created bogus documents in order to illicitly claim tax rebates.

Enquiries established that in November 2017 Christopher Carr submitted a tax return for more than £72,000 claiming on goods he had not purchased.

A second return was submitted in January 2018 for more than £117,000. Both returns were paid by the tax authorities.

But the invoices and bank statements used to support the two claims were false. The supplier referred to in the claim told the tax authorities that although Christopher Carr was a customer, the invoice submitted was not genuine.

Christopher Carr admitted he had falsified documents to claim the funds in April 2018. He was issued with a penalty of more than £110,000, including interest.

The Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Christopher Carr after he did not dispute that he fraudulently created false invoices, to obtain tax repayments totalling just over £190,000.

The disqualification became effective on 14 December 2020 and Christopher Carr is banned from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company for 11 years.

Dave Elliott, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

Christopher Carr created false invoices and bank statements knowing his aim was to defraud the tax authorities out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

We worked closely with the tax authorities to bring Christopher Carr’s actions to light and this 11-year disqualification recognises the seriousness of his actions.

Christopher Carr is of Manchester and his date of birth is December 1992.

CARR’S BK LTD. Company number 10865433

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Offers for unhealthy foods like ‘buy one get one free’ and promotions in prominent locations in stores and online to be restricted from April 2022
• Free refills of sugary soft drinks will also be prohibited in the eating-out sector
• Restrictions will apply to medium and large stores

The new rules, designed to support the nation to make healthier choices, will prohibit retailers from offering multibuy promotions such as ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers on these products.

Unhealthy promotions will also no longer be featured in key locations, such as at checkouts, store entrances, aisle ends and their online equivalents.

Promotions often appear to help shoppers save money. However, data shows that these deals actually increase purchases of promoted products by almost 20%. They encourage people to buy more than they need or intended to buy in the first place.

Free refills of sugary soft drinks will also be prohibited in the eating-out sector.

Public Health Minister Jo Churchill said:

We know families want to be presented with healthier choices. This is why we are restricting promotions and introducing a range of measures to make sure the healthy choice is the easy choice.

Creating an environment which helps everyone eat healthier foods more regularly is crucial to improving the health of the nation.

In the New Year, PHE’s Better Health Campaign will also run new adverts on TV and online to inspire and support people to maintain a healthy weight.

Obesity is one of the biggest health crises the country faces. Almost two thirds (63%) of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity and 1 in 3 children leave primary school overweight or obese. Obesity-related illnesses cost the NHS £6 billion a year.

These changes will make supermarkets and other retailers places where the healthy choice is the easy choice for everyone and support people to lead healthier lives.

The location of products within stores can lead to ‘pester power’ from children and can also significantly affect people’s purchases. For example, end-of-aisle displays have been shown to increase soft drink sales by over 50%.

Today’s announcement forms a key part of the government’s strategy to tackle obesity and get the nation fit and healthy. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the impact that obesity can have on people’s health and health outcomes.

These measures will support people in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and overall will improve the nation’s health.

An 8-week technical consultation has launched today on GOV.UK to seek views from industry stakeholders and enforcement bodies on how these policies can be implemented.

The restrictions on promotions are:

• location restrictions at store entrances, aisle ends and checkouts and their online equivalents (homepages, landing pages for other food categories, and shopping basket or payment pages)
• volume price restrictions will prohibit retailers from offering promotions such as ‘buy one get one free’ or ‘3 for 2’ offers on HFSS products
• free refills of sugary soft drinks will be prohibited in the eating-out sector
• the location restrictions will only apply to stores over 2,000 square feet – specialist retailers, such as chocolate shops, are exempt from the location restrictions
• prepacked food and drink in the following categories will be restricted if they are considered HFSS: soft drinks, cakes, chocolate confectionery, sugar confectionery, ice cream, morning goods (for example, pastries), puddings, sweet biscuits, breakfast cereals, yogurts, milk-based drinks with added sugar, juice-based drinks with added sugar, pizza, ready meals, meal centres, including breaded and battered products, crisps and savoury snacks, chips and similar potato products

The 2004 to 2005 Nutrient Profiling Model will be used to define whether a product is HFSS.

The policy focuses on the products that are significant contributors to sugar and calorie intakes in children and that are heavily promoted.

Only those products that are HFSS will be restricted, so there is scope for businesses to promote healthier products within these categories.