1. What is your current predicted in-year expenditure increase due to Covid-19 by the end of the financial year 2020/21?
Our October return to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showed an increase in forecast expenditure of £81.6m.
We would define ‘in-year expenditure increase’ as the increase in the amount of money your council expects to spend by the end of the financial year due to Covid-19, compared to what you budgeted for at the start of the financial year. If you expect a decrease in expenditure, please mark as a minus figure. For example: a council budgeted £100m for the financial year, if a youth centre was closed saving £150k by the end of the year but £5m was spent by the council on PPE and other infection control measures in that time, we would class the extra money spent on PPE and infection control (£5m) as in-year increased expenditure due to covid-19 and the £150k saved thanks to the closure of a youth centre as expenditure reduction on budgeted services as seen in question 3
2. What is your current predicted in-year decrease in income due to Covid-19 by the end of the financial year 2020/21?
£4.9m
We would define ‘in-year income decrease’ as the decrease in the amount of money your council expect to have received by the end of the financial year due to Covid-19, compared to what you budgeted for at the start of the financial year, if you expect an increase in income, please mark as a minus figure. This does not include extra central government grants for covid-19
3. What is your current predicted in-year expenditure reduction made on budgeted services by the end of the financial year 2020/21?
Nil
For ‘in-year expenditure reductions made on budgeted services’ we would define this as the amount of money saved through cuts to services by the end of the financial year as budgeted at the start of the year.
For example: for £100k budgeted for a library service, if one employee were let go saving £10k by the end of the year but £15k were spent on PPE in that time, we would class the expenditure reductions made on budgeted services as £10k. The extra money spent on PPE (£15k) will be identified by Question 1
4. How much extra money do you predict to take from reserves over the amount that was included in the pre-year budget by the end of the financial year 2020/21?
Our current forecast is £695,127
5.
a. How much extra money have you received from central government in Covid-specific grants since the start of the financial year?
£78.2m.
b. How much extra money do you believe the government’s commitment to covering 75p on the £1 of lost income (excluding the first 5% of lost income) will be worth to your council by the end of the financial year?
Up to £3m.
c. How much do you believe the phased repayments of council tax and business rates deficits over the next 3 years will be worth to your council by the end of the financial year?
Nil
6. What is your current predicted funding gap by the end of the financial year 2020/21?
£695,127
We define the ‘funding gap’ as: the increase in expenditure caused by Covid-19 + the decrease in income due to Covid-19 – the extra funding provided by central government. We do not include savings made through cuts to services in this equation nor money from reserves used to cover any deficit.