EMERGENCY funding is needed for local councils feeling the pinch due to the coronavirus and MP has said.
Layla Moran, Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, has written to the communities secretary Robert Jenrick to warn him that many district councils ‘need emergency funding’ to make up for lost income from sources including business rates and council tax due to coronavirus.
Ms Moran said she had heard from multiple district council leaders about their concerns.
The government’s extra funding already announced for councils is focused on ‘extra expenditure that needs to be made’, the MP wrote, highlighting that the main danger by contrast for tier two councils was loss of income from key sources, including falls in council tax income as more people qualify for council tax reduction.
Other losses have come from a decline in business rate revenue, a drop in planning fee income, and a drying-up of car parking fees during the lockdown.
In her letter to Mr Jenrick, the Oxford MP wrote: “This situation needs to be addressed urgently any gap in funding needed to address this crisis needs to be dealt with now.”
She later added: “Our district councils are on the frontline of the response to this virus, and it’s so important we protect them so they can continue to serve our communities when this crisis is over.”
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