Newcastle’s incredible response to COVID-19

The update that will go to the city’s Cabinet today (April 20) expresses gratitude to everyone in the frontline against the pandemic. 

But it also warns more Government money is essential if the city is to continue to protect its most vulnerable residents now that lockdown has been extended for at least a further three weeks, and to support economic recovery from the enormous impact of the virus. 

The council has distributed grants worth £40.1m to small businesses to help keep them afloat and protect employment. It is currently distributing £6.1m to help 23,500 of its poorest residents pay council tax, other bills and food through the Government’s Council Tax Hardship Fund, with 15,000 households not paying any council tax at all. 

But it also highlights the massive financial impact on the council itself – an estimated £50m in the current financial year when it has received only £10m so far from Government and uncertainty over how much it will get from a further £1.6bn announced by Government this weekend.   

The report warns that the impact of Coronavirus is likely to change consumer and business behaviours forever, and there’s a fear that health and financial inequalities will worsen, if decisive action is not taken quickly. 

Since the COVID-19 lockdown just over three weeks ago, the council, with partners, has: 

• Set up CityLife Line which is dealing with over 1,500 requests for support (mainly food) and brought together over 1,300 volunteers to help the most vulnerable. There is now an appeal to raise £30,000 to help the voluntary sector to continue delivering help, with Fenwick kickstarting the appeal with a substantial donation. 
• Distributed £40.1m in grants to small businesses to protect jobs – support delivered faster than in many other parts of the UK 
• Supported schools for the children of key workers so they can continue to go to work to save lives 
• Retrained and redeployed over 300 council staff to do frontline jobs 
• Maintained vital frontline services such as bin collections, benefits advice and accommodation for the homeless 
• Provided free parking for all key workers across the city 

 Leader of Newcastle City Council, Cllr Nick Forbes, said:  

“The council has been in the frontline fight against Coronavirus in Newcastle, coordinating food and medication deliveries to the vulnerable while also keeping services like bin collections and street cleaning going as much as possible. Our staff continue to do an incredible job in very difficult circumstances. 
“While some Government funding has helped us enhance our hardship schemes and support provided to businesses, we have had to pay out significant amounts of money to provide extra support.  

“We also know we’ll collect less council tax, business rates and income from everyday activities. This is going to have a huge in-year impact on our budget, which has already suffered move than £300m of cuts in recent years.  

“While we welcome the fact Government has offered more money to support councils over the weekend, it still falls significantly short of what we require both to deal with the pandemic and to kickstart the economic recovery. 

“I have written to the Prime Minister seeking assurances that the Government will continue to work with me to develop an appropriate mechanism to properly compensate us for the full losses we continue to incur, so that we can not only continue to support our communities thorough the public health crisis but play an active role in helping our city recover from the economic crisis that is to come. The council is the only institution which can lead this. 

“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to council staff, as well as those in the NHS, care sector and people doing many other important jobs such as delivery drivers, supermarket staff, post office workers and school staff who have kept our communities going in our fight against this lethal and invisible enemy. They all deserve our unqualified support and praise.”  

 The Cabinet report sets out some of the key steps the council will take toward economic recovery, working with a broad coalition of partners across the public, private and voluntary sector, including: 

• Provide additional help to residents who have been made unemployed, including by providing advice and guidance – and helping people access new skills and opportunities; 
• Work with businesses and residents to ensure that job vacancies are rapidly filled; 
• Ensure that businesses have access business support and advice, including through the Council’s BIPC, run from the central library 
• Work with Connected Voice to help them put in place a charity support package and make greater use of new volunteers who have come forward during the pandemic. 

Cllr Forbes added: “Getting our city back to normal will be a monumental task, but with bold action – and proper support from national Government – we have the opportunity to achieve our ambitions of a carbon-neutral Newcastle by 2030 by actively reshaping our city centre, attracting new businesses, enhancing infrastructure and create new ways to help all our residents, including those who have lost their jobs through this pandemic rapidly find new work. We trust and hope those in Westminster will support us in this mission by giving us the tools and resources we need.”