Coronavirus (COVID-19): emergency funding for local government in 2020 to 2021 and additional support in 2021 to 2022
Allocations of additional funding to local authorities in financial year 2020 to 2021 and additional support for local government in financial year 2021 to 2022.
Applies to England
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Over March and April 2020, the government provided £3.2 billion of emergency grant funding and over £5 billion of cashflow support to support local authorities through COVID-19.
On 2 July 2020, the Secretary of State announced a new set of support measures, including:
- a new scheme to reimburse councils for lost income from sales, fees, and charges
- changes enabling local authorities to spread their tax deficits over 3 years rather than the usual one
- further detail is available in the following council tax information letters (specifically, letters 4 and 6):
- a further £500 million of unringfenced funding to respond to spending pressures
On 22 October 2020, the Secretary of State announced allocations of a further £919 million of a further unringfenced funding to respond to spending pressures. This was part of a package of further support for councils worth over £1 billion.
On 17 December 2020, the Secretary of State announced further detail on funding support for local authorities in financial year 2021 to 2022, including:
- further detail and final allocations for £1.55 billion of unringfenced grant
- further detail on the £670 million local council tax support grant
- further detail on the extension of the sales, fees and charges income support scheme to June 2021
- further detail on a local tax income guarantee for 2020 to 2021
On 10 February 2021 the Secretary of State announced a further policy paper for the COVID-19 2021 to 2022 package following up on the consultative paper from 17 December, including:
- the final government position on the sales, fees and charges income support scheme extension to June 2021
- an update on the local tax income guarantee for 2020 to 2021
- confirmation of the approach to allocating the £670 million local council tax support grant
- an update on the local authority COVID-19 financial management information collections
On 15 July 2021, the government published a summary of the support that has been provided to local government during the pandemic both through the above unringfenced funding and more broadly. This support responds to both income and expenditure pressures on local authorities.
The funding published here has allowed local authorities to fill a critical role in the pandemic, including the vaccine rollout, containing local outbreaks, ensuring the safety of rough sleepers, providing food parcels, maintaining local leisure provision, and testing for and protecting the population from COVID-19.
This published summary table is not exhaustive. It includes funding with a total value of over £1 million only and reflects the Department’s assessment of the COVID-19 funding landscape at the time of the last update. It does not include support for businesses, community testing funding, or funding provided by Clinical Commissioning Groups, for example.
Updates to this page
Published 30 March 2020Last updated 12 August 2022 + show all updates
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Added COVID-19: funding allocations (financial year 2020 to 2022).
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Added COVID-19 local authority funding summary table.
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Added final local council tax support grant allocations 2021 to 2022, revised to reflect technical amendments.
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Added policy paper: COVID-19 funding for local government in 2021 to 2022.
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Local council tax support grant: indicative allocations 2021-22 have been provided rounded to a greater degree of accuracy.
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Added Local council tax support grant: indicative allocations and distribution methodology note 2021-22.
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Added COVID-19 funding for local government in 2021-22: consultative policy paper.
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Added COVID-19: funding allocations (financial year 2021 to 2022).
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Allocations updated to include a further £919 million of a further un-ringfenced funding to respond to spending pressures, announced 22 October 2020. Added Technical note on allocation of October COVID-19 local government finance package.
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Added technical note
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Funding allocations updated
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Allocations for a further £1.6 billion additional funding announced on 18 April 2020 have been added.
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First published.