Ministers urged not to backtrack on council funding pledge
Ministers have been urged to hand more cash to West Midlands councils to help them survive the coronavirus crisis.
Preet Kaur Gill MP, a vice-president of the Local Government Association, said the Government's cash boost for local authorities of £3.2 million fell well short of what was required to cope with extra pressures resulting from the virus.
The former Sandwell councillor said it was vital that ministers did not back down on a pledge to reimburse councils for additional expenditure during the pandemic.
The LGA says councils in England are facing a total financial black hole of between £10 and £13bn because of the cost pressures of fighting Covid-19, such as the sourcing of PPE, and from lost income and savings opportunities.
So far, the government has allocated £3.2bn to councils to help them through the crisis.
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Ms Gill, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said: "At the start of this crisis Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick was clear that councils should spend whatever it takes to keep our communities safe and were assured that they would receive reimbursement from the government. But ministers are now back-tracking, leaving councils facing a £10bn funding gap.
"After 10 years of cuts to local government budgets, local authorities are unable to share the burden of the financial cost of the crisis, as some ministers have suggested.
"With growing pressures on our councils and the essential services they run, it is vital that the Government does not to back down on its pledge.
"If the Government breaks its word to councils on funding, it will be the most vulnerable in our communities, and the workers who are giving so much to support them, who will suffer most."
Mr Jenrick has said the Government would "take into consideration" extra costs faced by councils as the result of action they have been required to take.
Speaking earlier this month he said: "Councils are receiving more money so far than they have reported to us as needed to meet the Covid-related costs they are bearing."
A Conservative Party spokesman for the West Midlands said the region's local authorities had received £347m in direct Government grants since the start of March.
