Keep your promise don’t shift the burden – Cllr Adam Swersky warns government ahead of council funding deal

Ahead of Thursday’s Harrow budget meeting, Labour’s Finance lead on Harrow Council Adam Swersky is demanding Ministers keep their promise to fully reimburse the cost of Covid to our local authority – currently standing at over £36 million.

At the start of the crisis, Ministers promised to support councils to do ‘whatever is necessary’ to tackle the pandemic, however last month’s Spending Review saw no additional money to tackle the enormous Coronavirus funding blackhole facing councils this year – currently standing at £7.4bn.

Instead Boris Johnson’s Government has delivered:

• A £1bn Council Tax rise facing every household in 2021
• A public sector pay freeze
• No long-term solutions to fund social care

Adam Swersky said;

“Coronavirus has hammered Harrow– but our council has done everything it can to combat the crisis from distributing PPE to supporting the most vulnerable. That’s been hugely expensive but essential to protect lives and livelihoods.

 Harrow residents were told that the cost of COVID would be covered but the government has failed to pay up. Instead, the government is using council tax to make local residents pay for their failures.”