Dorset Council is incurring additional costs of £13m per month as it supports Dorset’s residents, communities and businesses through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Unless additional Government help is received, above what has already been promised, the council could spend all its budget and its reserves and still run out of money by the winter.

The council says if the Covid-19 crisis continues into the summer, it is likely to incur additional costs of over £54m in the 2020-21 financial year. At the same time its income from car parking, other fees, the closure of leisure centres and a loss of business and council tax payment has been decimated.

A spokesman says the council is currently incurring additional costs of £13m per month as it supports Dorset’s residents, communities and businesses through the Covid-19 crisis.

Council leader Spencer Flower told the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week, reported in the Echo and other media, that he would be lobbying the Government for extra support and had been seeking the help of the county’s MPs.

The authority has a £304m balanced budget for this financial year, agreed in February before the pandemic was known about. It allowed for modest increases in adult and children’s social services budgets, but little extra for anything else.

With cash transfers from former councils the authority currently sits on reserves of £28million – but even this may have to be spent unless more Government support is forthcoming, although the council could go to the open market to borrow.

Since March the council has been responding to the Covid-19 pandemic as a category 1 responder under Civil Contingencies Act responsibilities. This includes a responsibility for planning and responding to the emergency with partners such as the NHS, Police and Fire Service.

So far its unexpected financial commitments include:

Extra costs on social care for adults and children including a 10 per cent increase in fees for care providers; renting and converting rooms in at the Hotel Rembrandt, Weymouth, to provide a social care base; providing staff and care agencies with extra PPE; additional staffing costs, and preparations for potential deaths

Lost income from suspension of car parking charges, the closure of leisure centres and other commercial services, and lower than anticipated income from business rates and council tax.

In addition the council has been unable to benefit from additional savings which were planned through reorganising the way it works. It says these savings can no longer be delivered due to employees being redeployment to support local communities, including shielded individuals.

It says that the council’s £10.7m share of the Government’s £1.6bn made available to council’s throughout England, was spent in the first month of response.

Said a spokesman: “Last weekend, the government announced a further £1.6bn of additional funding for councils. Dorset Council is still waiting to hear what its share of this funding will be. Finance officers hope the sum will be a similar amount again of around £10.7m.

However, this additional £21.4m funding from government for the Covid-19 response represents just 40 per cent of the forecast additional costs of £54m, leaving a shortfall of £32.6m.

“Dorset Council’s 2020-21 budget included reserves of £28m but even if all the council’s reserves were taken into account there is still a shortfall.”

Said Weymouth Cllr Tony Ferrari, cabinet portfolio holder for finance, commercial and assets: “We are grateful to the government for the funding we have received to date. We feel that government ministers are listening to councils and responding to our concerns to ensure that the country’s Covid-19 response is as effective as possible. We are doing what the government has asked of us by supporting Dorset’s people and businesses through this crisis.

“The decision to form a unitary council in 2019 is proving to be the right one. Across the country councils have found it more difficult to manage the pandemic when there are two tiers of local government. Our own reorganisation meant that we entered this in a much more financially robust position than we would have been as a county council and five district and borough councils. Although our position is uncomfortable many councils are worse off than Dorset.

“We will continue to brief government ministers, civil servants and our local Dorset MPs on the council’s position.

“So far the government has done as the Chancellor promised, “whatever it takes” to support the country. They do need to keep delivering on this promise.”