Coronavirus crisis will cost County Council £50m
A county council has said that the coronvirus crisis could end up costing it £50m.
Derbyshire County Council says it is having to revise its budget and will be putting forward proposals to try and recoup the extra costs soon.
The council says the pandemic will have cost it £32m by the end of June, and that it expects this to rise to at least £50m later in the year.
The £32m doesn’t include any losses due to people and organisations not being able to pay council tax and business rates and the figure includes savings that the council was planning to make this year, but is now unable to do so.
Extra cash has been spent on paying independent care homes more money to reflect their increases in costs as well as extra money to pay for PPE for frontline care staff and extra temporary staff taken on to work in local care homes.
A total of £400,000 has also been given in grants to local businesses from the Hardship Fund which has been established, but as applications are still being processed this figure is likely to rise.
So far the council says it has had £23m extra from the Government, and it is waiting to find out what its share of a further national amount of £1.6bn announced recently will be.
Derbyshire County Council leader, councillor Barry Lewis, said: “We’ve incurred extra costs right across the council’s services as we try to do our best to support everyone affected by the pandemic.
“I’m grateful for the extra support from the Government and expect that we will receive more funding to help us support those who need it most.
“Work is now underway to revise this year’s budget to reflect the additional costs of the pandemic and our service priorities. I’d expect to have some proposals in the next few months.
“A huge amount of work to help those in need has taken place in a very short period of time and I’d like to thank everyone involved. I’ve never felt more proud to lead the council. Our employees, residents and businesses are all showing true Derbyshire spirit.”
