Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, Local Government Information
Unit (LGIU) said:
“Today’s announcement from the Local Government Secretary should
be welcomed and we look forward to seeing more of the details
about what is included in it.
More money for the councils that are carrying out the difficult
and unprecedented job of supporting communities, getting
businesses back on their feet and helping to keep the public safe
throughout this pandemic is good. And, it is right that the
Government is recognising the need to compensate councils for
lost income. This announcement is better late than never but the
Government could have acted earlier on this and avoided a lot of
uncertainty across the sector.
There will be a debate about whether this additional funding
support is enough. From our perspective, it doesn’t look like it.
But the real problem here, is that we are plugging gaps rather
than getting ahead of the situation. And, it’s happening in a
strategic vacuum.
We still have no settled, sustainable, long-term plan for funding
local government and vacillation from the Government as to what
the role and function of local government is.
No one could have predicted Covid-19 and councils have done an
amazing job in their response to the pandemic. However, we would
have been better placed financially to cope with this crisis if
we had started from firmer foundations.”
