Sunderland council still facing funding shortfall despite despite £5m Government handout

Wearside is in line for £5 million from the latest round of handouts for local authorities struggling with rising costs of and falling income as a result of the pandemic.

This will be on top of previous grants and other measures to offset losses, but council bosses remain on course to finish the year in the red without more cash.

“The additional funding announced today is welcomed and acknowledged, yet there remains a high degree of uncertainty over next year’s budget,” said Paul Stewart, deputy leader of Sunderland City Council.

“The council will not find out its fuller funding position until later this year, which makes financial planning extremely difficult.

“The Government pledged earlier this year that it would assist in meeting the costs that are being incurred by councils across the country fighting COVID and preventing pressures building up on the NHS.”

The city council is expecting to receive a share worth £5,125,787 from a total of more than £900 million being handed to English councils.

Wearside has so far received about £21 million over the course of three separate tranches of government grants between March and July.

But despite this, bosses still expect to find themselves facing a £12 million financial black hole by the end of the financial year due to the impact of the pandemic.

Stewart added: “Gaps remain in Government pledges and there is a crisis looming in meeting council COVID costs.

“This is a crisis that is not of this council’s making – it’s a failure of the Government to meet all its pledges.”

The latest round of cash amounts to roughly £900 million for English councils, with ministers requesting it be used to prop-up ‘vital services and [protect] the most vulnerable’.

On top of the £900 million for councils, a separate £100 million fund has been set up to back struggling leisure centres.

Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Since the start of the pandemic, we have backed local councils with the funding they need to support their communities, protect vital services and recover lost income.

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