District Councils: Coronavirus

(asked on 13th July 2020) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the adequacy of funding for district councils.


Answered by
Simon Clarke Portrait
Simon Clarke
This question was answered on 16th July 2020

On 2 July the Secretary of State announced a further £500 million in unringfenced grant funding for councils to meet pressures they are facing in response to the coronavirus pandemic. This unprecedented package of support includes £4.3 billion of support for councils’ spending pressures, comprising £3.7 billion of unringfenced grants and the £600 million Infection Control Fund, bringing the total amount of additional support for councils, businesses and local communities to almost £28 billion.

The Government is also meeting 75p in the pound of lost income such as parking fees and museum entry charges, where that loss of income is more than a council could have been expected to plan for. For many councils, this will be a significant portion of the income lost as a result of the pandemic, particularly where these income streams make up a disproportionate portion of income relative to the size of the authority.

I have heard from many district councils, and the District Councils’ Network, and can offer the reassurance?that our aim is that all councils will be funded for their Covid-19 pressures and placed on a stable financial footing.

Across all three tranches of funding, 86 per cent of Districts have received more than £1 million in support. Individual allocations of the latest £500 million can be found on the Gov.uk website.

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