Decision details

The Council is responding to the Covid-19 major incident and therefore needs to make urgent decisions to ensure that residents are protected. Urgent decisions taken at the above named meeting are listed below with reasons.

It was AGREED that:

.             Expenditure required to address the impacts of COVID-19 on residents and support the sustainability of service providers is authorised, subject to costs being tracked in order to seek government reimbursement in due course        

Reasons for Decision:

1.               In an address to council Leaders on 16 March 2020, Local Government Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP committed to giving councils the support they need to contribute to the national effort to respond to coronavirus. The Government has committed to providing local authorities:

·         £1.6 billion to help them respond to other coronavirus (COVID-19) pressures across all the services they deliver

·         £500 million to support economically vulnerable individuals and households

·         Compensation to increase the Business Rates retail discount to 100% for one year and expand it to the leisure and hospitality sectors, and increase the planned rates discount for pubs to £5,000.

·         an additional £2.2 billion to support small businesses that already pay little or no Business Rates because of Small Business Rate Relief

The Government has encouraged support to be provided swiftly and offered assurance that local authority costs will be fully compensated. Although specific allocations and funding mechanisms have not yet been announced, it was agreed that spending to enable residents to access the support they need and help ensure the sustainability of providers should start to be delivered with immediate effect. An urgent report will be taken to Cabinet on 31 March 2020 to seek approval to adopt provisions in government guidance that provide new flexibilities in relation to specific services and duties; secure permission to incur new expenditure to respond to the impacts of COVID-19 within the county in line with government guidance, and adopt a process to govern and track extra spending and activity.