Significant’ cuts warning in Calderdale if no more Government help

Calderdale Council is warning it could be making cuts

Since Calderdale Council’s Cabinet meeting in April, Government has provided an extra £11.8 million to Calderdale Council to help cover the cost of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Councils across West Yorkshire have issued warnings about their futures if they cannot balance the books.

And with an estimated £36 million hole in the budget likely to result this year because of COVID-19, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet member for Regeneration and Resources, Coun Jane Scullion said if further financial help from Government was not forthcoming, the council would have to look at other ways of “significantly” reducing its costs.

At Cabinet it was indicated this could result in the council operating core services only, which it has legal requirement to provide, and would impact on other services, for example libraries, which it runs.

Coun Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) explained how dealing with the pandemic had impacted on the balanced budget which council passed in February.

Council agreed a budget for 2020/21 and a series of actions to address underlying budget pressures, particularly around adults’ and children’s social care, she said.

But both extra care spending and loss of income because of measures which had to be taken during the pandemic had a serious effect.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the implementation of some of these plans and resulted in additional cost pressures around social care, plus significant loss of income from services which we can no longer provide during lockdown, such as sports centres and parking.

“In addition we are losing Council Tax and Business Rates income from the impact of COVID-19 on people and businesses.

“We initially estimated that the gross cost and loss of income may be around £36 million to Calderdale.

“The Government has provided an additional grant of £11.8 million to contribute towards these costs, but we are still facing a significant shortfall.

“Without further Government financial support, we will need to find other ways of significantly reducing costs to balance the budget again,” she said.