Coronavirus: Oxfordshire council leaders ask for more funding

The council said that of £14.9m of funding given to Oxfordshire to respond to coronavirus, £14.6m of that has been given its county council

Oxfordshire's six council leaders have warned responding to coronavirus could cost their authorities £100m and urged the government to provide more funding.

They welcomed the £1.6bn extra funding already promised nationally but said that shared proportionately by councils would still be insufficient.

In a letter to the county's MPs, they said that without more money, their councils could become "unsustainable".

They said they expected knock-on impacts to be felt for years.

The authorities are not fully funded by government grants or taxes but also from revenue generated by rents and services, such as car parking.

The leaders said those revenue streams have "all been severely damaged" by current restrictions and the impact on the county's economy.

"For some of the councils, the scale of lost income is of greater financial impact than the additional costs being incurred," they added.

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Communities secretary Robert Jenrick promised the extra £1.6bn for councils across England on 18 April. But authorities are still waiting to see how that will be allocated.

Without additional funding to continue "vital and lifesaving work", the council leaders said some authorities in Oxfordshire might be "unable to set a legal budget for 2021-22".

Although the government has allocated £14.9m in extra funding to Oxfordshire during the pandemic, just £300,000 of that has been provided so far to its four district councils - Cherwell, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire - or Oxford City Council, they said.