ALMOST £12 million has gone back into the bank accounts of Dorset residents this week.

The £150 energy bill rebates has been ordered by the Government to help meet cost of living increases.

Dorset councillors were told that the payments have been made to 78,000 households who live in properties banded A to D.

Dorset Council’s Cabinet member heard yesterday that letters were also about to going out to 44,000 other households, who do not pay their council tax by direct debit, telling them how they can apply for the rebate.

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Portland councillor Paul Kimber told the meeting that he would like assurances that the council was doing all it could to help lower income homes with rising cost of living costs.

He asked if  “green grants” and support and advice offered by the council-run Low Carbon Dorset group would help the poorest residents as well as businesses.

The council's only Labour councillor, which represents one of the poorest wards in the country, said he would be keen to learn how much of the Low Carbon orset money was reaching residents who are currently finding it tough to make ends meet because of rising fuel and food costs.

Porfolio holder for climate and environment Cllr Ray Bryan told him that help had been offered to around 50 households through green homes grants and that a further report would follow in the coming weeks.

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The meeting was told that the EU-funded Low Carbon Dorset group, which works across the Dorset Council and the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council areas, was now in it’s last year, following Brexit.

Since 2018 it has made grants to 164 projects, including helping to fund energy savings of 1.2million KiloWatt hours in public buildings.

Projects in the last year are said to have saved 1,790 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide across both council areas with an overall total since the Low Carbon Team of seven started work, of 6,950 tonnes of CO2.

Weymouth Green councillor Brian Heatley offered his congratulations for the work but said that although the figures produced sounded good, it was impossible to judge how relevant they were without being given a percentage saving, or the overall CO2 figure for the whole of Dorset.

Cllr Bryan said those figures were still being worked on and would be produced for councillors in an update report on climate actions so far undertaken by the council.

The Cabinet meeting also heard of £1.3million in Government funding which was being used to help the county’s farmers with climate and ecological change. Projects so far included grants for planting new woodland and six projects to improve soil quality.