North Yorkshire council welcomes government funding among predictions of £65m coronavirus costs

A Yorkshire council has received a share of £1.6bn in government funding to help with the financial toll caused by pandemic restrictions.

North Yorkshire County Council had “made clear” to the government that its costs throughout the coronavirus lockdown were rapidly escalating.

In response to them and other councils across the country, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, Robert Jenrick, announced the additional funding over the weekend.

North Yorkshire County Council will be informed of its individual allocation of the funds later this week.

The council has estimated that its finances would be £65m worse than had been anticipated before the pandemic, primarily due to the costs of emergency school hubs and supporting NHS and care workers as well as local businesses.

Councillor Carl Les, North Yorkshire County Council’s leader, commented: “We greatly appreciate that Robert Jenrick, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government has been listening to us.

“He has taken on board that we urgently need additional funding for the crucial role we are playing in pulling communities together and building trust among people to fight the pandemic and for that we are thankful.”

“We don’t yet know the size of this additional allocation for the county council but this extra funding will undoubtedly help to bridge the gap.

“Nevertheless we still face massive financial challenges and we estimated that the original allocation of £15m of grant for COVID-19 needed to be quadrupled to deal with the estimated costs.”

“The whole of North Yorkshire is pulling together to meet this unprecedented challenge and we are doing everything we can to keep people well and safe and to support the NHS.

“But we were already operating with reduced spending power so there is no doubt that we like many other councils, will need supportive and long-term partnership with government for the crucial role we play and to see this crisis through.”