Bob Bevil of Chipping Barnet Foodbank on the new Crisis and Resilience Fund

A man unloading containers of food from the boot of a car — Unloading supplies at Chipping Barnet Foodbank – (Credit – Leïla Davaud)

Both officially and anecdotally the experience of poverty in Barnet has burgeoned in recent years.

Government Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (IMD25) data show that Barnet has seen the greatest relative negative change in overall deprivation out of all the London boroughs since IMD19, the previous analysis. Worryingly, Barnet ranks second in terms of the greatest negative relative change in deprivation across all English local authorities!

The footfall in the borough’s food banks is increasing. According to the most recent Citizens Advice Barnet report, compiled for Chipping Barnet Foodbank, half of the residents seen in quarter four of 2025 had problems associated with benefits, housing, or debt, leading to a need for food.

Until now, struggling households have been able to apply for help to the Household Support Fund (HSF). In October 2021, the HSF was introduced by central government to support low -income families in the aftermath of the pandemic and local authorities were given discretion in its allocation.

While welcome, the effectiveness of the HSF in Barnet, and elsewhere, has been questioned, not least because it was renewed on short, unpredictable cycles, leaving no possibility of strategically planning for community resilience. It is difficult to assess a fund which is temporary and tactically concerned with a revolving door of crisis management.

However, as of April 1^st, the new Crisis & Resilience Fund (CRF) is replacing the HSF. This fund has a line of sight spanning three years and is the first multi-year settlement for locally delivered support.

This means that Barnet now has a gilt-edged opportunity to take a strategic approach to building individual and community financial resilience; to quote directly from central government guidance; the CRF allows the building of “co-ordinated systems of support with strong connections between local authority services and community support organisations.”

The CRF has three support strands including immediate crisis payments for sudden financial emergencies, housing-related support where there is a sudden shortfall in rent for example, and long-term resilience services including funding for agencies providing frontline assistance.

There is a very real fear in the community that the strategic opportunity proffered by the CRF to support residents will, in reality, become a rehash of the HSF. After all, it is easier to maintain a status quo than to actively seek innovation.

So here is a clear message for those standing for election on May 7^th.

A local authority facing an eye-watering decline in its fortunes is now at a fork in the road. One road relives the rocky journey that brought us here. The other road leads to resilience, change, and the outcomes that our residents deserve from their leaders.

Bob Bevil is advocacy and campaign lead at Chipping Barnet Foodbank

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