Complementing the Highland Council’s Cost of Living Support Fund, this will help in supporting local initiatives to keep people warm, provide food and enable people to heat their living areas and live safely in their homes.

Sutherland area chair, Councillor Richard Gale, said: “We are very aware that the approaching winter will be a concern for many people as we face financial and emotional pressures caused by the national cost of living crisis.

“We have agreed to target the remaining amounts in our ward funds to provide additional support to local families. It is important that households keep warm and safe this winter and I am glad that we can help to alleviate some of these cost of living pressures by redirecting financial support to where it is needed most at present.”

The Place Based Investment Fund provided £100k per ward to support local responses to address the four harms of Covid-19 (direct harm caused by Covid-19; other health impacts; societal impacts and economic impacts) and consider local investments to support recovery.

Sutherland Members agreed to allocate this funding towards enhancing playparks, mental health and wellbeing, and defibrillators in the area. The remaining balance from the Place Based Investment Fund from wards 1 and 4 combined is £11,493.

Members also agreed, at a meeting on 7 January 2021, that a portion of their remaining Covid-19 Ward Discretionary Fund may be set aside for other purposes than originally intended. In Sutherland, the remaining balance from the Discretionary Fund from wards 1 and 4 combined is £25,105.

The Highland Council agreed on 22nd September 2022 to create a £450,000 Cost of Living Support Fund to help alleviate the impacts that the rising costs of living are having for Highland residents.