East Sussex: Council Wants "Certainty" In Planning For A Covid-19 New Normal

Senior county councillors have called for ‘certainty’ in government funding as East Sussex plans for the future of “a world with Covid-19”.

The discussion came at a meeting of East Sussex County Council’s cabinet on Tuesday (July 14), where members considered the authority’s annual state of the county report.

The document, which marks the beginning of the council’s annual budget setting process, spelled out the uncertainty around the council’s future services, financial position and what funding will be available from government. 

In it officers said the council cannot currently update its Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) as a result and argue it is “essential that some level of certainty of government funding is received”.

Council leader Keith Glazier said:

“Hopefully we will get some more certainty, although we will make some tough choices which undoubtedly lie ahead. 

“The lobbying  is vital.

To understand what it is going to mean for this year is difficult enough but for us to now start planning for services for next year it is very, very difficult to see how we do that.

“Hopefully by early autumn we will have some more clarity about what it is government intends to do in the funding of local government.”

According to council papers, the latest financial data return for June shows the cost of coronavirus to be £17m greater than the funding the council has received.

If further government funding is not forthcoming to meet this pressure, officers say, then this will need to be managed through the use of reserves for 2020/21.

Officers say it is currently unclear how this can be projected into future years, but the council does not have the unallocated reserves needed to meet ongoing pressures in 2021/22 and beyond.

What is clear, however, is that previously proposed savings targets of £3.251m for 2021/22 will need to be reviewed.

The pandemic, the reports says, is also likely to mean significant changes to the council’s core offer — a stripped-back basic level of services described as the ‘minimum level of services residents have the right to expect.’

While the core offer goes beyond what the council is strictly, legally obliged to provide, it is still considered to be a limited version of local authority services.

Liberal Democrat group leader David Tutt said:

“I’m not trying to belittle the monies that have come forward, there has been some recognition from government and that is appreciated.

"But there is still a bit to go to foot the bill and that cross-party lobbying should continue. 

“We are looking at a new world now.

"I have had the opportunity to speak on the state of the county [report] for many years now, but this year it is very different because nobody could have expected us to have been facing, 12 months ago, what we have been facing over the past four months."

Cllr Tutt added:

“I fully understand the need to review [the core offer] in light of the additional work that has needed to take place in response to Covid.

“But I would seek assurance that review is only going to be looking at adding new things in, not reducing the level of the core offer.

“When the core offer was published it was clearly stated by the administration that was the minimum level of service we believed the people of East Sussex had a right to expect.”

The council is to carry on its future planning and service reviews over the coming months with a more detailed picture expected to emerge this autumn.