NLC to receive £10million in extra funding to help fight coronavirus

Council leader Jim Logue welcomed the funding, with its allocation between areas having been agreed at a meeting of local government organisation Cosla last week.

North Lanarkshire is set to receive around £10 million in additional funding to help with its coronavirus response.

The sum is the area’s proportionate share of the £155m being made available to Scotland’s 32 councils under the Barnett formula for allocating finances, after the UK government announced £1.8 billion in funding for local authorities across the country.

Council leader Jim Logue welcomed the funding, with its allocation between areas having been agreed at a meeting of local government organisation Cosla last week.

But he says the authority will continue to face hugely increased costs as it deals with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said: “The cost to the council increases daily in terms of the additional workload of Covid-19, for a whole variety of reasons.

“An incredible amount of hours and work is being done in home support and we
have set up 10 hubs throughout North Lanarkshire – three of which operate seven days per week – so that key workers can take their children there and are able to attend their employment in the NHS, fire, police and logistics.

“Introducing safe distancing arrangements means we’re in every office making sure that they’ll adhere to regulations.

“There are new distancing regulations for workers in some areas like grounds maintenance, cemeteries and bin collections – you can’t go out with a three- or four-person crew in a lorry so now two follow in a bus.

“For those who are shielding, there are over 10,000 identified by the Scottish Government and GPs as perhaps
vulnerable, so we’re making sure they have access to food, prescriptions and medication and have support in the community.

“We also have a number of staff self-isolating.”

He added: “The Scottish Government is passing the £155m from the UK government to
be distributed between the 32 local authorities, and under the proportionate formula for distribution, North Lanarkshire gets about seven per cent, which is around £10m.

“The Scottish Government hasn’t indicated any timescale for the allocation of the monies, and, as such, Cosla agreed to write seeking guidance as to when authorities will receive their grant allocation.”

North Lanarkshire’s £10m is in addition to an extra £3m allocated by councillors to the coronavirus response when the authority received additional funds following the Scottish Government’s final budget settlement in March.

Councillor Logue said: “I don’t think any of us at that time were aware of the extent the pandemic would have and how long it would last.

“That £3m has helped, but I still think that we’ll need to receive additional monies depending on how long this is going to go on – the cost to authorities and governments is immense.

“The approach from both governments in working together so far has been commendable, and there’s been very good collaborative working between councils and the Scottish Government.”

Councillor Logue also told how work is under way to look at the longer-term implications of moving out of lockdown at the end of the pandemic, saying: “There are two approaches here.

“We have to meet the demands of Covid-19, and we have to look ahead to what recovery looks like, how we could go back to some form of new normality, which might be different from what was there prior to March 23.

“All that work is going on to meet those challenges; there’s been good work between local authorities and the Scottish Government, and councils will be delivering all those services.”

Welcoming the additional £155m for councils, Cosla resources spokesperson Cllr Gail Macgregor said: “We look forward to engaging with [finance secretary] Kate Forbes to get this money to councils quickly.

“Scotland’s councils are doing a heroic job in keeping a huge range of essential services running to meet the needs of communities and to be responsive locally.

“The costs of dealing with this pandemic and coping with the loss of income are going to be substantial, and Cosla is working closely with all councils to understand the scale of these.”