Powys to send Covid-19 bill to Senedd

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Money being spent dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic is all being recorded as Powys County Council (PCC) looks to claw back as much as possible from the Welsh Government.

At the Audit Committee e-meeting this week, head of finance, Jane Thomas, explained how they needed to submit claims each month to the Welsh Government’s Covid-19 Hardship Fund.

In May, the council said that they estimated they would lose £3.35million a month because of the pandemic. By the end of this month they estimate that figure could balloon to over £10million in total.

Ms Thomas, said: “The review right at the outset was looking very bleak. We now know we’ll get more support for additional costs and are starting to have discussions about how we can claim for loss of income.”

The council had estimated that the loss of income from car parking, licence, planning fees, cultural venues, leisure centres, sports facilities, bus revenue and property rents, would be £6.4million by the end of June.

Helping local authorities deal with their loss of income was part of the Welsh Government supplementary budget which was passed on May 27.

Ms Thomas said: “We are still waiting for details on that, but being able to get support for our lost income is vital for that revenue budget risk.”

Councillor Ange Williams asked: “Have we recovered all the money for the flooding that we should have?”

It had been estimated that Powys County Council’s (PCC) response to the storms and floods in February, cost £1.5milliion.

Ms Thomas, said: “It is subject to a threshold of £517,000 that we have to meet for the response.

“But we have claimed everything above that for the last financial year. We are continuing to make claims for further costs too for the response and the corrective work since then.”

She added that one of the risks to this year’s budget was not meeting the “cost reductions” or cuts target. Built into the 2020/21 budget is the need to make £10.7million in cuts and savings.

It had been expected that by the end of June the savings target will be £2,356,000 behind schedule.

Any shortfall would need to be funded by PCC’s reserves which stand at just over £13million.