Latest coronavirus funding packages agreed for Northamptonshire councils
On Thursday (July 16), local government secretary Robert Jenrick MP announced the allocations for the latest sum of £500 million to be spread across local authorities across the country.
Northamptonshire County Council was unsurprisingly the biggest beneficiary in the county, and has received an extra £4.7 million – which takes its total sum up to £35.3 million.
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Hide AdBut prior to getting the extra £4.7 million, the county council was still predicting a financial black hole of between £14 million and £27 million – even with the £30 million it had already received.
So the third payment tranche will only slightly mitigate the expected losses the county council is going to have to deal with in the 2020/21 financial year.
Northampton Borough Council meanwhile has been allocated an extra £437,160 in the latest round of funding, taking its total to £2.79 million. But it goes little way to plugging what the authority predicted will be a loss of between £2 million and £3 million in the financial year, prior to the latest announcement.
It’s a similar story at South Northamptonshire Council. The authority ran three potential outcomes through its finance modelling. It found that in an ‘optimistic’ scenario the council would have to foot a £2 million bill, while a ‘realistic’ scenario saw a financial impact of £3 million. Meanwhile, a ‘pessimistic’ outcome could see the council have to fill a £4.5 million gap.
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Hide AdThe latest extra funding amount totals £106,259, which means the authority has received just over £1 million to help tackle its expected shortfall.
Daventry District Council’s total funding meanwhile stands at £1.02 million thanks to a latest allocation of £125,557.
Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick MP said: “Councils are playing a vital role in our national fight against coronavirus, providing a lifeline for so many and supporting communities at a time when they need it most.
“That’s why we are giving them an extra £500 million – taking our total additional funding provided to £4.3 billion – and I am setting out how this will be allocated to councils fairly based on the pressures they have told us they are facing.
“This comes on top of the co-payment scheme announced last week that will compensate councils for irrecoverable income losses from sales, fees and charges.”