Coronavirus: Melton MP vows to secure extra funding to protect services

Melton Borough Council estimates the cost of dealing with the pandemic locally will cost it around £600,000 for the first three months but anticipates the fallout will extend for many months afterwards.

The majority of this cost with be from lost income from services such as car parking, planning fees, cattle market, rental and investment incomes and the additional money spent on cleaning materials, IT equipment, staffing costs, postage and supporting community needs.

Leicestershire County Council predicts it will take at least a £50million hit from dealing with the crisis through extra adult social costs, reduced commercial income and Council Tax payments and higher waste disposal, IT and construction bills.

The government is propping up local authorities with cash funding and has already handed out £530,059 to the borough council and £27,588,158 to County Hall although leaders in both councils say they will need much more.

Mrs Kearns says Leicestershire councils were already inadequately funded compared to other authorities across the country and she will continue to lobby for fairer cash sums to be allocated.

In the meantime, she welcomed the Covid-19 money already given to the local councils but conceded more may be needed.

“Our councils are working extraordinarily hard to support our communities during this national crisis,” Mrs Kearns told the Melton Times.

“This additional funding will go a long way to ensuring they can continue to support the most vulnerable, provide additional services during the pandemic, and continue to provide essential services.

“This funding is a very important investment, but I stand by to secure more support for our councils as we work together to recover from the pandemic.”

Local authorities are funded through a combination of business rates, central government grants and Council Tax and they also generate income through rents, fees and charges, sales, investments and contributions.

The government is reviewing the way in which local authorities in England are funded in the Fair Funding Review.

Mrs Kearns said rural areas were disadvantaged by the existing funding model and she has asked for it to recognise rurality factors such as distances travelled, sparsity, and other geographical features that affect cost of delivering services.

Leicestershire’s spending power per head for 2020/21 stands at £736, compared to £849 for Leicester City, £888 for Surrey and £1,171 for Islington.

If Leicestershire enjoyed the same spend per head as the latter north London borough, she points out, this would mean an extra £304million in 2020/21 for local services.

The government was due to consult this Spring on the funding review for local authorities and implement the review in 2021-22 but that date looks likely to get pushed given how much Ministry Housing, Communities and Local Government has had to focus on the pandemic.

Mrs Kearns added: “Long term we need to see meaningful change in how local government is funded, and this is one of the commitments I made during the election.

“For too long beautiful rural areas like ours have come second best when it comes to government investment, with little recognition that delivering services in rural areas is more expensive.

“We were making progress, Leicestershire MPs had held meetings with the Local Government Minister and I had raised the issue in writing and in the House of Commons multiple times and received commitments that rurality would be taken into account.

“However the pandemic has placed enormous strain on our country’s finances, so this change could be slower than I hoped.”