Chesterfield council leader warns of key worker job losses over additional expenditure caused by pandemic

Councillor Tricia Gilby said in the letter that council workers currently providing essential services and supporting the borough’s most vulnerable residents would ultimately lose their jobs if the Government doesn’t honour its pledge to fully reimburse the authority.

She said that the council had received a total of £59,000 from the initial £1.6bn awarded to shore up local authorities nationally, but was already out of pocket to the tune of £3.781m due to the coronavitus.

She added that, aside from job losses, it would mean essential services would need to be cut, and the town’s rough-sleeping community would be forced back onto the streets.

The letter was written after it emerged that Robert Jenrick MP, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, appeared to backtrack on his earlier position that local authorities would be fully reimbursed for additional expenditure caused by the crisis, to one where councils ‘should share the burden’ with central government.

Following the announcement that a further £1.6bn would be distributed to local authorities, she wrote: “I remain deeply concerned at the reports that emerged earlier in the week in relation to recompensing councils for the money spent and income lost as a result of the coronavirus crisis. In a matter of days, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government appeared to have backtracked from his earlier clear position that councils should spend whatever it takes and expect reimbursement, to one where he no longer intends to fulfil his earlier pledge.

“Such a U-turn would mean immediate cuts to council services, rough-sleepers returning to our streets, our ability to help vulnerable children and adults curtailed with inevitable consequences for community cohesion, no ability to finance new capital investments to re-stimulate the borough’s economy, and sadly job losses among the very staff who are currently giving of their all in keeping essential services running through this difficult time.”

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