The Government is providing an additional £1.6 billion to local authorities so they have the resources they need to respond to the coronavirus pandemic - This is in addition to the £1.6 billion already announced in March.
Cheshire East has been allocated a total of £19.689,859 to continue providing essential services and support to those who need it the most.
Cheshire East will receive a share of an extra £1.6 billion in funding to make sure councils can continue to support their communities and deliver vital services through this challenging time.
This extra £1.6 billion takes the total additional funding to councils through this crisis to over £3.2 billion, an unprecedented level of extra financial support in recent times.
The additional support will mean councils can continue to provide essential services, such as adult social care and children’s services, while also providing support to people impacted by the coronavirus. This includes protecting rough sleepers, with 90 per cent of rough sleepers offered safe accommodation so far, establishing shielding programmes for clinically extremely vulnerable people and ensuring there is additional support available across a range of other vital council services.
This announcement builds on other government measures, including allowing councils to defer the payment of business rates to central government and providing them with a combined £850 million in up front social care grants, that will help with their cash flows so they can continue to deliver vital services.
Commenting, Cheshire East Conservative group leader Janet Clowes said:
“I’m really pleased that Cheshire East will receive an additional £10,539,109 from the Government to help ensure essential services are not impacted by the extra demands placed on this council by coronavirus. This means that since the pandemic started, Cheshire East will have received an extra £19,689,859.
“This is part of the additional £3.2 billion the Government is providing to councils across England to ensure they have the resources they need during this difficult time.
Cheshire East Staff are working extremely hard under extraordinary circumstances to ensure the vulnerable are supported and protected. Together with the phenomenal response of Cheshire East communities across the borough to support those in need or who require shielding from Covid-19, we will continue to work closely with Cheshire East staff and Ministers to ensure they have the resources they need to carry out their important work."
Communities and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said:
“Councils are playing a central role in our national fight against coronavirus and the Government continues to back them at this challenging time.
“That’s why I announced an extra £3.2 billion of support for councils to help them to continue their extraordinary efforts.
“Today I’m setting out how the latest £1.6 billion of this will be allocated to councils in the fairest way possible, recognising the latest and best assessment of the pressures they face.
“We are backing local district councils and a clear majority will receive at least £1m in additional funding.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- The Government is providing local councils with an extra £3.2 billion to deal with extra costs associated with coronavirus. The extra £1.6 billion announced today takes the total given to councils to help their communities through this crisis to over £3.2 billion, an unprecedented level of additional financial support in recent times. This follows and builds on the increase to council Core Spending Power that came into effect for 2020-21 from April – a rise of £3 billion on 2019-20. This meant that even before the coronavirus, there was more money available for council leaders to deliver local priorities (MHCLG, Press Release, 18 April 2020, link; MHCLG, Final local government finance settlement 2020 to 2021, 6 February 2020, link).
- The Government is giving councils greater financial relief by allowing them to defer £2.6 billion in business rates payments and paying £850 million in social care grants up front. These measures mean councils will be able to defer £2.6 billion of payments they are due to make to central government over the next 3 months as part of the business rates retention scheme. Additionally, the Government will bring forward care grant payments to councils worth £850 million for both children and adults. These were paid in one lump sum, rather than monthly in April, May and June, helping provide immediate support for core frontline social care services (MHCLG, Press Release, 16 April 2020, link).
- We helped 90 per cent of rough sleepers with offers of safe accommodation, keeping them safe from coronavirus. More than 5,400 vulnerable rough sleepers have so far been helped off the streets and from communal shelters during the pandemic – more than 90 per cent of the total. We are working with councils to ensure all those people who are still sleeping rough are housed in safe accommodation as soon as possible. (Robert Jenrick, Twitter, , 26 April 2020, link; MHCLG, Press Release, 18 April 2020, link; MHCLG, Correspondence, 27 March 2020, link).
- Councils are providing more than half a million boxes of essential supplies to people who are medically vulnerable and unable to leave their homes. The government is delivering essential supplies to extremely medically vulnerable people in England in an operation on a scale not seen since the Second World War. The packages, which are being left on people’s doorsteps, are paid for by central government and contain essential food and household items such as pasta fruit, tea bags, tinned goods and biscuits for those who need to self-isolate at home but have no support network of family or friend to help them (Robert Jenrick, Twitter, 26 April 2020, link; MHCLG, Press Release, 18 April 2020, link).
