Central government must ‘fully fund’ the cost of Covid-19 to local authorities, Salford city mayor has said - estimating that the first six months of the pandemic could leave the town hall with a £33m shortfall.
He has said that austerity-hit councils would be left in a ‘perilous’ financial position without a full bail-out by the government.
And Salford council leader Paul Dennett said he was concerned about the ‘change in language’ from government ministers towards local authorities ‘sharing the burden’.
In a letter to prime minister Boris Johnson, he wrote: “Anything other than full funding of local government for our response and for longer term financial stability would be a betrayal of the critical front line workers in local