Local Government: Coronavirus

(asked on 27th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the total amount of financial support provided to each local authority in England during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Luke Hall Portrait
Luke Hall
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 5th February 2021

MHCLG works with other government departments to ensure local authorities are fully supported to deliver their vital role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, we have allocated over £8 billion so far to support local authorities during the pandemic. This includes £7.5 billion allocated directly to councils to address expenditure pressures, and over £500 million of payments from the first round of our sales, fees and charges compensation scheme. This does not include the £3 billion of additional financial support committed to councils for the COVID-19 response in 2021-22.

A full breakdown of the funding we have captured in this assessment is set out below:

Fund Name

Funding (£m)

COVID-19 2020/21 emergency unringfenced funding for LAs (Tranches 1-4)

4,607

Contain Outbreak Management Fund

978

Infection Control Fund

1,146

Adult Social Care Rapid Testing Fund

149

Workforce Capacity Fund for Adult Social Care

120

Local authority compliance and enforcement grant

30

Funding to support the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable

33

Reopening High Streets Safely Fund

50

Next Steps Accommodation Programme

92

Emergency Support for Rough Sleepers

3

Local Authority Emergency Assistance Grant for Food and Essential Supplies

63

Additional Funding for Home to School Travel

71

COVID Winter Grant Scheme

170

SFC Compensation Scheme (first round)

528

Total

8,040

Attached is a breakdown of this £8 billion of funding by region and by local authority. This reflects the department’s current best understanding and further payments will be made to local authorities this financial year in due course including: additional funding from further rounds of the sales, fees and charges scheme; and additional funding that will be provided through the Contain Outbreak Management Fund to tackle the spread of the virus – worth over £225 million a month during the national lockdown.

Also attached is a breakdown in relation to England’s ceremonial counties. For this, the following caveats apply:

  • Ceremonial counties do not necessarily cover the same area as county councils. The area covered by a ceremonial county will include all local authorities within that historical definition of the county. It will include the county council and shire districts, as well as any additional single-tier councils within the area.
  • A small number of standalone fire and rescue authorities cross ceremonial county borders. In these cases, funding is apportioned between the ceremonial counties covered by the fire authority according to population.


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