Jobs and services fears as Covid-19 cash 'inadequate'published at 18:11 British Summer Time 23 July 2020
Sophie Calvert
Political Reporter, BBC Radio Stoke
Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Cabinet has called the level of government funding "disappointing and inadequate" and has warned about further cuts to staff and services.
Members of the cabinet have written to Robert Jenrick, Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, external, to ask for more money.
The city council has already been allocated £18.8m in government funding. Its own estimates suggest the pandemic could cost between £25-50m.
The Conservative leader of the local authority, Councillor Abi Brown, said: "The reality is we don’t have a huge amount of things left to take that cash from."
The council’s savings pot is about £10m and the current predicted gap is at least £9m.
It is warning that without additional funding it will "shortly need to make the first set of very difficult decisions".
Last week, the government said its direct funding to councils had now reached £4.3bn, through a series of "unprecedented" grants.