Mayor Dave opens new Citizen's Advice premises

Earlier today Mayor Dave Hodgson opened the new Citizen's Advice premises in the Harpur Centre.

The Citizens Advice service has been helping to solve problems since 1939 and was set up to the meet the needs of the civilian population in war time.

From the start volunteers ran the service and worked from public building and private houses.

Advisers dealt with problems relating to the loss of ration books, homelessness, and evacuation. Debt was also a key issue as household income reduced due to call-ups.

Since then they have continued to support communities across the country to deal with the issues they face.

In the 1980s two recessions resulted in a growth in poverty and enquiries increased; changes to the benefit system and work practices generated a large proportion of enquiries and in the 2000s debt, housing and employment were key issues that they dealt with.

During the pandemic the service like the community faced unprecedented challenges - they responded to demand by increasing their telephone and digital access channels, until they were able to return to in person service delivery.

Many clients are now used to accessing the service digitally, but in-person service is still important.

The move to the Harpur Centre ensures that they can offer several ways of accessing the service, are more visible to the community and means anyone who is in need of advice or are struggling to cope with the current cost of living crisis will know they are here to help.