Services under threat as Covid payout ‘not enough’
EXTRA government
Covid funding has been handed out to local authorities - but Cheshire East Council has again warned it won’t be enough and says services could be cut.
It has received an additional £2.7m from a further £500m given nationwide, taking the overall emergency coronavirus money for Cheshire East to £22.4m.
But the council estimates the Covid cost to the borough will be £70m - £42m increased expenditure and £28m loss of revenue in areas such as council tax and car parking.
A particularly large part of additional expenditure has been adult social care.
Councillor Amanda Stott, cabinet member for finance, said: “We are continuously monitoring our spend and forecasts to fully understand the financial impact of our fight against Covid-19.
“Councils are not permitted to borrow to support revenue expenditure and it is illegal for an authority to set an unbalanced budget in any financial year. It is therefore now crucial for us to analyse the latest government funding and the extent to which the easing of lockdown and social distancing criteria will reduce forecasts to understand when cuts could be required to council services.”
Cheshire East Council has joined with others to lobby for more funding.
Council leader Sam Corcoran said: “We cannot ignore the fact that, in order to support people through this emergency, we have had to spend money that was not budgeted for at the start of the year.
“We have received repeated assurances from government that councils will be fully compensated for costs incurred in the fight against Covid but we are yet to see the promise meet the forecasts.”