LGA responds to public health grant announcement

Responding to the announcement of councils’ public health grant for 2020/21, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:

“Council public health teams are working day and night to support national efforts to minimise the spread of the coronavirus. They are doing a fantastic job in extremely challenging and ever-changing circumstances.

“Today’s long-awaited publication by government of public health funding from April will help councils plan how to best help communities cope with this virus outbreak and keep providing other vital public health services. 

“A real-terms increase in public health funding this year is good news. But with public health funding having reduced by £700 million in real-terms in the past five years, public health services remain under huge pressure.

“The Spending Review must now provide long-term and sustainable public health funding if councils are going to be able to keep providing the essential services which help people stay healthy, while reducing the strain on the NHS and social care.”