As Trafford Council receives another £1.8M of emergency government funding to continue to support the Council through Covid-19, the Council’s Chief Executive, Sara Todd has written to staff to reassure them that the Council is …”not about to go bankrupt.”
Trafford borough has benefitted from a huge amount of government support through the Covid-19 crisis including £42,655,000 in grants to Trafford businesses; £14,471,600 in Emergency Funding to the Council; £2,269,790 for an Infection Control Fund; £210,672 in High Street Funding; £1,561,070 for Council Tax Relief and £1,156,759 to develop a local Covid-19 action plan to keep the virus under control.
In addition, Trafford has received unprecedented economic support to protect jobs and businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak. 36,300 jobs have been protected through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, with Government grants covering 80 per cent of people’s wages, up to £2,500 a month. 8,900 self-employed people in the three Trafford Parliamentary constituencies are receiving grants worth a total of £24.9M from the Government to help with the impact of Coronavirus.
Cllr. Patrick Myers, Shadow Executive Member at Trafford Council for Finance and Investment said “It is very significant that the Council’s Chief Executive felt the need to write to staff to tell them that the Council “...will still be paying our bills, staff salaries and delivering much needed services to residents and businesses.”
“Unfortunately, the Labour Leader of Trafford Council has been creating the impression that the Council cannot balance its books and that has been very unsettling for the Council’s hard-working staff and residents who rely on its services. The government has already supplied the borough with an enormous amount of financial aid and will continue to do so.
“The Government has also launched a new scheme which will reimburse council’s for lost income and allow council and business rates tax deficits to be repaid over 3 years instead of one. Overall, in the last 6 months, government has worked closely with local authorities to understand their needs and provided more than £27 billion to help councils, businesses and communities through Covid-19. Trafford like any every local authority has benefitted from that huge amount of government interventions and Council staff and residents should be reassured that the government is on their side through this difficult period.”
