Nottingham City Council has welcomed the news that an additional £9m has been provided by the government to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on local communities.
However, it reiterated it is “nowhere near enough” to cover costs of vital services that the Council is responsible to deliver for its residents, especially the elders and people who are vulnerable.
The latest emergency funding allocation follows an initial award of £10.6m. However, the Council estimates the cost of COVID-19 to the authority is £56m including additional costs of supporting social care and homelessness and lost income and says this figure will continue to rise further over the coming weeks.
Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Finance, said: “Much more funding is required to help us meet our needs in vital areas like care services, homelessness support and children’s services.
“We want to continue to work with the Government to deal with the impact of the pandemic and to be in the position where we can fully support our city to move through lockdown and into renewal and recovery.”
The second round of £1.6 billion funding was announced on April 18, following the initial award of £1.6 billion that was announced by the government on March 19.
In a statement, Minister of State for Building Safety and Communities Lord Greenhalgn, said: “In total I have announced over £3.2 billion of additional funding for councils to support their continued efforts to address the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in their communities.
“We expect councils to prioritise spending in those areas where we asked them to carry out extra work and new tasks, in particular, in relation to adult social care, children’s services, public health services, shielding the vulnerable, homelessness and rough sleeping, supporting the NHS, and managing excess deaths.”
In terms of reforming the funding framework for local government, Lord Greenhalgn says he is committed to making future reform “simpler, more up-to-date and more transparent.”
He continues, “Neither we nor councils currently have the capacity, nor the necessary degree of financial certainty, to engage properly with these reforms now.
“In order to ensure that we get these reforms right, both the Government and councils need to work together to arrive at the right approach.”
By Na Qing
Feature photo credit: Olimpia Zagnat