Reliance on emergency food parcels and panic about how to heat a home, pay the bills or buy warm clothes for the kids is the grim reality of life for far too many people. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report UK Poverty 2025, page 12 “in October 2024, around 2.6 million of the poorest fifth of households (44%) were in arrears with their household bills or behind on scheduled lending repayments, 4.1 million households (69%) were going without essentials and 3.2 million households (54%) cut back on food or went hungry.”
Forum Central is one of the organisations selected by Leeds City Council to distribute some of the UK Government’s Household Support Fund. Over the years, we’ve used these funds to provide grants to third-sector organisations in Leeds to support vulnerable people with the costs of energy, food, and essential household items.
In 2025, I became involved in assessing, awarding and reporting on Household Support Fund 7 (HSF7) grants. This year, Forum Central awarded £622,500 via 137 grants to 98 different organisations. To date, more than 3,400 households in crisis have received HSF7 support, and this number will increase significantly by the end of the financial year. So many of the personal stories I’ve heard have been heartbreaking.
Whilst working on HSF7, it’s been such a privilege to learn about and connect with a diverse, caring, passionate and proactive group of people, all deeply rooted in their communities and integral to third sector support in Leeds. I feel fortunate to have deeper insight into the breadth and depth of community provision, and I’m in awe of their commitment to reaching out to people who need them most.
The team at Forum Central receives many kind invitations to visit organisations funded through HSF7 and meet people involved. Emma Schofield manages HSF7 on behalf of Leeds City Council, and in September, Emma and I visited Kamran Khan at the Junior Sports Hub (JSH) in Harehills, as JSH was one of the first to receive and spend their HSF7 grant funding.
JSH is a fantastic community resource in a huge converted warehouse, and offers a wide range of sporting and non-sporting activities each week, attended by hundreds of people. Over the years, JSH has received 3 Household Support Fund grants, and Kamran has learned from each experience. When applying for HSF7, Kamran decided to focus on providing supermarket vouchers so households can choose which essentials to buy with them. Vouchers enable people to spend all at once or just spend part of the voucher as and when they need it, so there is money set aside for emergencies. Kamran chose Morrisons as there is a local store and he can purchase vouchers in bulk, with restrictions added if required, such as no spending on tobacco, alcohol, or lottery. In previous funding rounds, Kamran provided free food in the JSH cafe and also advertised the HSF grant online. Lots of people came to ask about it, many of whom he didn’t know, so now he quietly approaches people in need who use JSH regularly to offer a little financial help in the form of a Morrison’s voucher.
Imolites Yorkshire CIC is another organisation which received HSF7 funding in 2025 to provide food vouchers. It is a socio-cultural organisation which has its membership drawn from indigenes of Imo State of Nigeria. The team at Forum Central were delighted to be invited to their cultural celebration event in December. Jo Volpe, CEO at Leeds Older People’s Forum and a partner in Forum Central, met the Imolite Yorkshire President, Zebedee Ohaeri, and experienced first-hand the fantastic music, traditional dress and delicious food of the region whilst learning more about Imolite culture. Jo was presented with a kola nut by the organisation as a symbol of hospitality, peace and friendship.
All third-sector organisations funded by HSF7 are fantastic and are doing great work to support their members. Although we can’t take up all invitations to visit, in early 2026, Forum Central is planning to host a networking event, celebrating third sector provision, for the huge range of partners who have previously distributed Household Support Fund grants in Leeds. Until the happy day when poverty is eradicated, and everyone has access to adequate food, warmth, shelter, and other basic needs, schemes such as this are vital to support the health, wellbeing and dignity of people in crisis. The UK Government has discontinued the existing Household Support Fund and confirmed a new long-term Crisis and Resilience Fund in the 2025 Spending Review, worth £1 billion per year, to provide preventative support to households as well as assist them when in crisis. We’ve yet to learn the details of this new fund, but I hope Forum Central will continue to play a vital role in supporting the vibrant third sector in Leeds to support households most in need.
