Local councils face a Covid-19 cash crisis – and it’s about to get ugly
The Local Government Association says £6bn is needed just to keep the show on the road as its members prepare emergency budgets after years of neglect, writes James Moore
Local government finance is a bit like a sore tooth. It’s something people typically choose to ignore until they wake up one morning and find themselves in so much pain that they need a shot of morphine and a swift trip to see an emergency dentist for a surgical procedure.
Council taxpayers might be about to find out just how painful that surgery is going to be. Local authorities were in a precarious financial position before the novel coronavirus landed on these shores.
According to the Local Government Association (LGA), the extra Covid-19 costs and losses of income incurred by councils in March, April and May, amounted to £3.2bn in England. This has been covered by two tranches of emergency funding provided by central government. But they could require as much as £6bn more to cover the costs of coping with the coronavirus pandemic through the course of the current financial year.
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