Like every local authority across the country, the council’s finances have severely been affected by the pandemic and it is estimated that the coronavirus outbreak will have a potential £70million financial impact on Haringey Council.

The current forecast financial impact on the 2020/21 General Fund budget is estimated as potentially being £45m. The government has so far awarded £15.4million in emergency grants to Haringey Council to help with this, but there are concerns as to whether the government will meet the full costs of the Covid-19 crisis on councils.

Despite this the council has played a key role in helping the community through this most difficult time.

Robust measures have been taken to safeguard those at risk of rough sleeping during the pandemic. Since the beginning of March, the council has secured emergency accommodation, food and support for over 406 single homeless adults.

£2million has already been spent, and the council anticipates a continued call on their resources with the need for a further provision of £2million. This ensures they can continue to meet the continued demand around homelessness.

In order to help the sustainability of the home care sector in Haringey, the council have agreed to provide a 5% uplift to the fees paid for care homes and home care providers for a two-month period across April and May. The costs for this period will be £0.35m.

The council will also extend the £2 per hour uplift to home care workers for all home care hours delivered in Haringey through until August 1 when the new home care purchasing arrangements, which incorporate the payment of London Living Wage, will come online, and longer for others who are not covered by that new arrangement.

PPE continues to dominate headlines, and the council have committed to ensuring the local care sector have adequate supplies of personal protective equipment. The Leader previously approved £300,000 spend on emergency PPE for the period April to June 2020 and this provision is being increased to £1million.

Food supplies have been a major challenge for many people and the council working with partners assembled a significant humanitarian assistance programme through Haringey Together to reduce inequalities and meet the needs of Haringey residents.

The council have now approved an extra allocation of £0.4m from the Emergency Response Contingency for the direct purchase of emergency food supplies for the period to mid-July 2020, with a further allocation of £100k to fund longer term support.

The council’s Housing Revenue Account is also forecasting a potential reduction this year of over £8m and this could affect the council’s ability to expand the amount of social housing available and reduce spending on essential works on its existing stock.

Councillor Joseph Ejiofor, Leader of Haringey Council, said:

“This local authority, like all other councils, must balance our books and we need the assurance that national government will keep to it’s word and fund local government appropriately.

“Councils must focus on delivering services on the front line now – we can’t be looking over our shoulders worrying about how we pay for it tomorrow.”

To read the full cabinet report:

Covid-19 finance report