'I can't see how Yorkshire councils will cope with financial impact of pandemic'

"This is a marathon not a sprint," says Marie-Ann Jackson of North Yorkshire County Council, describing the extra support needed for communities in England's largest county during the coronavirus lockdown, "we're in it for the long haul with people".

As the council's Head of Stronger Communities, she oversees the efforts to carry out welfare checks on those across North Yorkshire who are "medically shielding" in their own homes.

There are some 20,000 in all, and many who have registered to say they don't have family or friends to provide for them receive welfare calls by phone from the council to make sure they're OK. If they can't be reached a volunteer will be sent round to knock on their door.

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A recent addition to the scheme has seen volunteers visiting these homes on a Saturday to drop off The Yorkshire Post and a leaflet with key telephone numbers on.

It's a much-needed service and one Ms Jackson says will still be vital regardless of what the Prime Minister announces tomorrow about the easing of lockdown measures.

"Even if parts of the population start being able to do other things, for some people that's not going to be the case," she says. "We want to make sure that we've got people who will continue to make those calls and make those welfare checks, just to check that they're okay."

Sixty miles away in Bradford, the council has extended its Skills House service to provide a fast-track job brokerage scheme to get people into work during the crisis.

Kevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce RollinsonKevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
Kevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
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The service helps crisis-hit care providers by sourcing suitable candidates for staffing vacancies and establishing a bank of casual care workers who can be deployed to fill short-term staffing gaps, meaning care homes don't need to carry out their own recruitment.

Services like this are typical of those provided by local councils across the region in the face of the unprecedented challenge posed by coronavirus and the lockdown measures.

With a public sector response required unlike any since the Second World War, town hall staff worked seven days a week to ensure they were prepared.

Praised by central government as "unsung heroes" of the crisis, local council workers who have kept care homes open and public services like waste collection going were described by one Yorkshire leader as "the glue that holds this all together".

Kevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce RollinsonKevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
Kevin Mort, who is doing door to door welfare checks for North Yorkshire County Council checking on people with no digital resources in the Malton area during the pandemic, giving them a help leaflet and on Saturdays a copy of The Yorkshire Post. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
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But the efforts made in the last two months have come at a huge cost, one far beyond the ability of the region's town halls to fund themselves without help.The cost of supporting local care providers offering a safety net for the region's most vulnerable is running into the millions of pounds for many councils, with millions more needed to buy the personal protective equipment needed to keep staff safe.

A mandate from the government for councils to house rough sleepers and their new role in handing out grants to small businesses has been a further drain on the resources of authorities whose resources were already cut to the bone by a decade of austerity.

At the same time many of their sources of income from areas such as council tax, business rates, parking and leisure centres have dried up overnight.

Bradford council estimates that three months of lockdown is likely to lead to a loss of £1.5 million in parking charge income and enforcement, while even affluent Harrogate is losing around £250,000 a month in car parking revenue.

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Even if lockdown measures are lifted soon, local authorities fear, the economic shock of the pandemic will mean they will have less coming in from income taxes for the foreseeable future.

And though the Government has stepped in to try and bridge the gap, with two one-off bailouts totalling £3.2bn which saw £313m handed out to authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber, many face eye-watering holes in their budgets.

“Despite delivering the biggest contribution across the public sector to austerity, the response to this crisis by councils, epitomised by front line staff, has been exceptional," says Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council.

"I honestly cannot see a way to pay for the financial impact, though, unless we get significantly more support from government.

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“Extra expenditure on social care, the collapse of income from council tax and business rates and the loss of fees from areas like car parking, planning, leisure centres and visitor attractions add up to an unprecedented financial challenge."

Though local councils have built up reserves, the scale of the budgetary black holes facing the 22 Yorkshire and the Humber authorities mean some=[p;l;p[/'ill not be able to meet their legal obligation to balance their books without extra help.

Such is the severity of the situation that the region-wide issuing of Section 114 notices, most recently seen at Tory-run Northamptonshire County Council, is being discussed by council chief executives.

This option would mean no new expenditure is permitted with the exception of safeguarding vulnerable people and statutory services, with other 'discretionary' services cut to ensure a balanced budget.

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Bradford council chief executive Kersten England, who chairs the group representing Yorkshire and the Humber's town hall chiefs, says that to take such a step "a lot of finance directors and their chief executives would have to take a very big deep breath".

"In normal times a Section 114 generally speaks of a failure of the place to have managed budgets sufficiently and appropriately," she says.

"On this occasion, given that all local authorities in Yorkshire and the Humber have been effectively managed financially to this point, even under the level of cuts we made, it will be because the challenges of this moment have exceeded the ability of the resources we have at our disposal to manage it."

The extent of the challenge varies across the region, with the higher council tax base in more affluent North Yorkshire making local councils there more resilient than their counterparts in cities with major pockets of deprivation.

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Wakefield council could face a £20m hole in its finances and Sheffield £34.5m, with Leeds City Council facing a £121m shortfall.

But in a region with a mixture of councils run by Labour, Conservatives and a Liberal Democrat-Green coalition, there is unanimous agreement about the scale of the problem.

"It doesn't bear thinking about that we could move forward very quickly into a position where we're having to make decisions about which frontline services we're no longer able to deliver," says Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake, who co-chairs the board of Yorkshire council leaders.

"People are really suffering in our communities, there's so much work that we have to do."

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Her co-chair Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire County Council, told a recent meeting: “There is clearly a need for further funding or there will inevitably be an impact upon the crucial services we provide and to the wider economy including our supply chain.

“We will simply not be able to provide the levels of local support we believe need to be in place in response to a global pandemic.”

Though council bosses were initially reassured by Ministers that central government would cover their costs and they should not put off spending decisions, they are now worried by a change of tone.

On Monday, communities secretary Robert Jenrick said councils should not “labour under a false impression” that Covid-19-related costs over and above what government set out that it expected of them will be reimbursed.

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And the amounts handed out so far as part of the two £1.6bn bailout payments have varied, with smaller district councils like Hambleton and Harrogate getting substantially more in the second tranche at the expense of bigger authorities who face the rising costs of paying for social care.

With the future viability of many councils now uncertain, those in Yorkshire are calling for a long-term funding settlement which factors in how long it could take the economy to recover and the increased demands they will face.

According to Kersten England, councils will face more need than ever from deprived communities seeing increased levels of destitution as well as vulnerable adults and children in need.

But she says: "The more positive side of that is the role we can play in creating the right conditions for renewed growth.

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"The most important thing we can do is create the right conditions for renewed growth because once people are in work they are generally in better health, they then have less need of the state in their life and they can pay tax

"That's a virtuous cycle, putting us at the front of the work on the creation of conditions for growth.

"But both roles are equally important because we've had this role, from time immemorial, from the Middle Ages if you're in York, which is to be there for the most vulnerable, alongside them in their hour of need."

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