Steve Reed calls for action to ensure local lockdowns are robust and efficient enough to prevent second wave

Labour has today called on the Government to take urgent action to ensure local lockdowns are robust and efficient enough to prevent a second wave of Coronavirus spreading across the country. 

Labour’s Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, Steve Reed, has urged the government to take four steps to protect communities: 

1.   Ensure that Local Authority Directors of Public Health have access to all Coronavirus test data, including the postcodes of all positive tests.

2.   Provide guidance on exactly what legal powers are available to local authorities to rapidly put in place local lockdowns by closing schools, workplaces or neighbourhoods.

3.   Clarify where decision making for local lockdowns will be taken, which decisions will be made by the Government, Joint Biosecurity Centre or left for local authorities to take.

4.   Keep the promise to fund councils in full for the cost of the crisis, so that they don’t have to cut the resources they need to keep our communities safe.

Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, said:

“The Government made local lockdowns a key component of the exit strategy but yet again they were too slow to involve local authorities, just like they were too slow to enforce the lockdown nationally.  

“The lack of a functioning test, track and trace system, coupled with their failure to give councils the power to take action quickly could lead to local outbreaks becoming deadly national ones. 

“The Government must not waste any more time, we are facing the risk of a deadly second wave of infections and a second national lockdown fatal for both lives and livelihoods across the country.

Ends

Notes to editors

·       Outbreaks of Covid-19 could spread rapidly if the delays seen in Leicester are repeated in other cities across the country, according to new analysis from Labour.

·       The 11-day delay in enforcing a local lockdown in Leicester has likely seen the rate of reproduction grow rapidly because local authorities do not currently have the data or powers they need to manage local outbreaks.

·       It is unclear whether Government ministers, local authorities or the Joint Biosecurity Centres are responsible for declaring local lockdowns. Local Authorities have warned they do not have the legal powers to enforce a local lockdown in a specific locality if an outbreak was identified.

·       Cllr Ian Hudspeth, the Conservative leader of Oxfordshire county council, told MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee that he believed it would be possible to obtain the legal power to shut down an area or city from Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee. But by then, Hudspeth added, “that passage of time has not been assisting,” meaning that the contagious disease could easily have spread out of control. “It’d be interesting for [central] government to confirm what is meant by the local lockdown,” he added, including “clear guidance as to those powers and what is expected of us”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/councils-warn-they-have-no-legal-powers-to-enforce-local-lockdowns

·       The Manchester Evening News first reported on 14 May 2020 that ‘Public health officials in Greater Manchester do not currently know how many people are testing positive for Covid-19 in the region - due to a ‘log jam’ in getting information from the national system. Confusion over laboratory use and a breakdown in data-sharing with government means the results of tests carried out at commercial operations such as the drive-through at Manchester Airport, or in some cases in care homes, are not being communicated back to local health bodies.’

Source: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchester-doesnt-know-how-18251359

·       Leicester's seven-day infection rate was 135 cases per 100,000 people - three times that of the next highest city - but it took 11 days for the decision to extend the lockdown to be made, the Leicester's mayor Sir Peter Soulsby told the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53244626

·       Regional flare-ups of coronavirus cases in England after rules are eased will be tackled with “local lockdowns”, the health secretary has said: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/hancock-local-lockdowns-will-be-used-to-suppress-infection

·       On 17 June 2020 Matt Hancock said ‘We are working very closely with local authorities on local lockdowns. The hon. Gentleman specifically raised the point about powers, as he has before. I have powers under the Coronavirus Act 2020, passed by this Parliament. If powers are needed by local authorities, then there is a process to raise that requirement up through a command chain that leads to a gold command, which I chair, and then those powers can be executed on behalf of local authorities if they are needed.’:https://bit.ly/2YPUDrw

·       On 15 June 2020 Councils warn they have no legal powers to enforce ‘local lockdowns’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/councils-warn-they-have-no-legal-powers-to-enforce-local-lockdowns

·       Ministers promised to stand behind local authorities’ coronavirus-led budget reductions. On March 18th ministers provided assurances that they would make sure the government provides “whatever funding is needed for councils to get through this and come out the other side”, a pledge repeated by Robert Jenrick: https://www.lgcplus.com/finance/government-will-provide-councils-with-whatever-funding-is-needed-18-03-2020/

·       However Ministers have rowed back on those plans, with Communities secretary Robert Jenrick telling MPs that councils should not “labour under a false impression” that all costs would be reimbursed, provoking widespread anger amongst local government leaders and MPs: https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/coronavirus/jenrick-warns-not-all-costs-will-be-covered-as-lost-income-estimates-branded-highly-speculative-05-05-2020/

·       Councils estimate the funding gap from coronavirus to be around £13bn in 2020/21, made up from extra spending and loss of income: https://themj.co.uk/Councils-need-another-12.8bn-to-cope-with-coronavirus---LGA/217396

·       The Government have so far funded just £3.2bn of this, leaving a gap of up to £10 billion: https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/coronavirus/jenrick-funding-comments-spark-fears-ppe-costs-will-not-be-covered-07-05-2020/

·       Councils do not have the ability to borrow to cover revenue spending, or to run deficit budgets by carrying overspends into subsequent years: councillors are subject to a legal duty to balance budgets. If they can’t find a way to finance their expenditure, then a section 114 notice is issued under the Local Government Act 1988 which bans all new expenditure and gives the council 21 days to produce an alternative budget that meets the criteria, and would involve making cuts to existing services. Several councils have already warned they are already just weeks away from issuing section 114 notices: https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/coronavirus/s114-notices-loom-as-jenrick-tells-sector-to-share-the-burden-of-covid-19-costs-16-04-2020/

·       Councils in England have already seen government funding reduce by £15bn since 2010, leading many to rely on income streams that have now been severely affected by the economic shock caused by lockdown measures. The cross-party Local Government Association warned before the crisis that “the reality of £16 billion of funding reductions and increasing inflation are having a negative impact and residents are starting to see the consequences of these cuts”. While councils would make their own local decisions over how to balance their budgets, a decade of spending reductions mean that a further 21% reduction would fall almost entirely on statutory frontline services.