West Lindsey Council facing huge financial losses due to lockdown

Councils across the UK are expecting to lose out on millions of pounds due to reduced income caused by the coronavirus lockdown.

Authority leaders are calling on the Government to give further help in response to the losses caused by a loss of revenue from services including car parking, leisure, planning and licensing.

A West Lindsey council spokesman said the authority’s priority remained ‘supporting our customers and communities during the pandemic while maintaining essential service’. They added: “We are working with other councils and Government to lobby for help with the financial pressures the Covid-19 crisis has caused.”

It is a similar story for other councils across the county.

East Lindsey Council bosses said their revenue steams had ‘reduced to almost zero’ and they were anticipating losses of £1.5 million, or potentially even £2 million per month for the duration of the crisis, due to the loss of its vital tourism economy.

In Lincoln itself, council bosses are predicting a £4.4 million loss to income if the lockdown continued on to June.

Jaclyn Gibson, chief finance officer at Lincoln City Council, welcomed £67,000 extra funding from Government, but warned of an uncertain future financially if future grants were not proportionate to the costs incurred so far.

And Lincolnshire County Council said it was ‘difficult to estimate the long-term impact’ on council finances and did not provide figures on how much it had lost.However, Coun Martin Hill, council leader, said a £21.5 million fund already provided would help to meet additional costs, and that Government had promised a further share of the additional £1.6 billion it was making available to authorities.He said: “These are challenging times for local councils, who are playing a major role in supporting our communities and our most vulnerable residents during the crisis.“We welcome this extra money, most of which will be targeted towards social care.”