Pandemic has hit finances like ‘horrortsunami’
COVID-19 HAS hit Calderdale Council’s finances like “a tsunami of horror” and would seriously affect services for the coming years, councillors heard.
Calderdale Council’s fastchanging financial situation through the coronavirus pandemic is bad enough as a “snapshot in time” but is likely to get worse, councillors were warned.
Coun Jane Scullion told Cabinet colleagues the pandemic had brought increased costs and vastly reduced income.
Government help for the pandemic would cover around £13.6m of an estimated £17.7m budget deficit this year and of the remainder the council needs to find around £3.7m in savings.
But lost revenue, including an estimated £10m in lost Council Tax and Business Rate due to COVID-19, has implications for budgets for a number of years to come, she said.
Adding to the uncertainty was council’s waiting on a local government spending review which was expected from Government in the autumn.
Coun Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot), who is the council’s Deputy Leader and has the Cabinet portfolio for Regeneration and Resources, said: “I suspect it is going to get worse.
“If things are as bad as they appear to be becoming we will be moving to a business critical model,” she said.
This would mean the council only running core services which it has to provide by law and the seriousness of the position.
By September it should be clear whether an emergency
“business critical” only budget will be needed, she said.
Coun Susan Press, Cabinet Member for Public Services and Communities, (Lab, Todmorden) spoke about income lost through not being able to run some of its services because of COVID-19.
Not being able to open leisure centres, for example, was resulting in a £7.6m financial hit.
If things are as bad as they appear to be becoming we will be moving to a business critical model
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