Efforts to tackle poverty in Tunbridge Wells have been watered down by the council’s cabinet, according to its poverty taskforce.

Tunbridge Wells has one of the lowest deprivation rates in Kent and is below the national average.

However, to address pockets of deprivation in the district Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s (TWBC) overview and scrutiny committee and poverty task force looked for solutions and suggested four recommendations to the council.

While the council’s cabinet was supportive of the idea to reduce poverty in the borough, members overwhelmingly objected to one of the recommendations: to conduct community surveys and gauge resident needs.

Cabinet members claimed that these would be costly and other measures were more effective such as signposting those in deprived areas to information on how to claim benefits.

In response, the cabinet created four recommendations themselves and said the council would continue to “engage with residents experiencing difficulties in a targeted and meaningful way.”

Chairman of the council’s poverty and deprivation task force, Cllr Hugo Pound, was damning of these new recommendations: “One of my colleagues described the cabinet’s response as pastel washing, it's not a whitewash, but it is a much paler version of what the scrutiny committee has been suggesting.

'None of the four recommendations from the cabinet so far actually respond to that argument...'

“Interestingly in the report one line keeps being repeated: ‘Tunbridge Wells ranks as the least deprived authority in Kent’.

“And that may be true but you have to acknowledge that within one of the least deprived boroughs in Kent we have pockets of deprivation which we as a council should be trying to change.

“None of the four recommendations from the cabinet so far actually respond to that argument.

“I have a resident in my ward who lives in one of those pockets of deprivation and in 2019 was approved to create adaptations to her four bed house to create a wetroom and ramp to enter because she has a physical disability.

“All of these changes were made and it wasn’t until April 2020 that she suddenly realised I’m still paying for a four bed house rather than a three bed house which she now had.

“Her understanding was that the Housing Association and the council would be communicating with each other and sorted it out, but it was only acknowledged two weeks ago today.”

Currently the council spends around £42m on financial support for residents such as housing benefits and council tax support.

However, the council is currently forecasting a deficit around £1.7m and the cabinet stressed that any more proposals would have to be funded appropriately.

Meanwhile Cllr Matthew Bailey objected to the complaints and claimed the council could be more ambitious: “We’ve had criticisms of our response but I do have criticisms of the recommendations as well.

“I think the recommendations are the sort of recommendations that councils come out with.

“It talks about community based surveys, group discussions and a dashboard.

"But if you’re a household in deprivation you don’t want to take part in a survey, you want information about what you can claim and that information isn’t perfect at the moment.

“I think our magazine, Local, could help. I would certainly like to see information in every edition that points people to what they can claim such as pension credits.

Cllr Andy Fairweather further supported a different approach: “We recognise and think that due to cost, lack of effectiveness, existing measures and partnerships, there are better ways to target individuals.

“We also believe that discreet quality work is being done, specifically working with nine different areas and agencies to support deprived and vulnerable residents.”

In a final vote the cabinet voted through its revised proposals unanimously on Thursday.