South Hams District Council have released a series of statistics to highlight some of their activities and services. In a snapshot of the Council’s activities over the last year, the organisation revealed that it has: processed £85m in COVID business support grants over the last two years, providing a lifeline across the South Hams’ business sectors, supported 177 households to prevent them becoming homeless, awarded £5.8m in Council Tax support to those in financial difficulty, seen 270,483 visits to their four leisure centres at Totnes, Ivybridge, Kingsbridge and Dartmouth, delivered and found occupants for 139 affordable homes- these include 11 supported properties in Dartington for people with disabilities, enabling the first step towards independent living, spent just 12 days on average to process a new Housing Benefit claim (well below the national target of 17 days, meaning people get access to vital support that they need promptly), been involved in the planting of 5,380 new young trees across the District, delivered 18 programmes to support our high streets in the COVID-19 recovery, using £143,000 of EU funding and saved £450,000 across South Hams and West Devon by implementing easier to use, customer friendly software.

The information comes from the authority’s annual report for the last year, reflecting on the Council’s achievements, as the nation continued to work its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to new opportunities.

The report reflects how the pandemic has shaped Council services and how the organisation’s staff have risen to planning how we best support the District in future.

Cllr Judy Pearce, Leader of South Hams District Council, said: “Despite the challenges of the last year, South Hams District Council has continued to deliver on projects that will have a positive impact for our residents.

“We have developed a new strategic plan, which was unanimously supported by Council, and once again we have set a balanced budget, ensuring that we can continue to deliver much needed services to our residents and businesses. We continue to hope that in the coming year we are offered greater longer term certainty on our budgets from Government

“We have also continued to be on the forefront of offering vital support to businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with a total of £85m in grants processed to date. This is an incredible achievement by the team.

“As we ended the year, the Council was called upon by Government to support the Homes for Ukraine Scheme – something that will undoubtedly be one focus for us in the coming year.

“Our staff have continued to impress me with their tireless work and diligence in supporting the people and communities of the South Hams. There will likely be fresh challenges ahead, but there will also be opportunities for us to unlock more investment in the District through the Government’s Levelling Up agenda and through the progression of our plans for the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport.”

To see the report, visit: http://mg.swdevon.gov.uk/documents/s28633/Annual%20Report%20Appendix%20A%202021%202022.pdf