COVID ‘black hole’ to wipe out city savings

City leaders say it should not be expected to wipe out savings to plug a £35million financial ‘black hole’ caused by COVID-19.

The coronavirus lockdown has seen Sunderland City Council’s income from council tax, rents, fines, fees and other areas slump, while care costs and other expenses have climbed steeply.

Government aid promises have so far allocated Wearside more than £18million, but bosses have insisted ministers need to do more to honour their previous pledges.

“Sunderland’s [funding gap] is about between £10-11million and increasing every day,” said Graeme Miller, the leader of the city council.

“If we have to use our general reserve it will be wiped out dealing with the costs of a problem that this city and its people did not cause, and we should not be expected to pay.”

Addressing Boris Johnson directly, he added: “Honour your pledge Prime Minister – or like ‘Levelling Up’ is it just mealy-mouthed words, useful during an election and then forgotten?” An initial round of Government funding to help with the impact of coronavirus, early in the lockdown, saw Sunderland handed £10.5 million from a fund worth £1.2billion nationally. But after this scheme was doubled, a second round of grants saw Wearside allocated about £3million less.

Sunderland’s Conservative group insisted Wearside continues to receive one of the most ‘generous’ shares from the scheme and have called on council chiefs to attempting to score ‘cheap political points’.