How much money Hartlepool council, businesses and households have received in government funding since the pandemic

Hartlepool Borough Council has to date received £59million in funding support from the Government to deal with the outbreak’s impact.

The authority’s finance and policy committee heard this week 64% of that - equating to £37.9million - has supported businesses, while 15% - or £8.6million - has gone to supporting households and the care sector.

The remaining 21% - equating to £12.5million – has supported the council itself to mitigate losses of income for both services and council tax.

Chris Little, council director of resources and development, said: “I don’t think any of us expected the scale of public spending that we’ve seen a year ago, it’s certainly supported the council, it’s certainly supported our businesses and individuals.

“I think we’ll all be paying for this for a long time into the future but I think it was necessary spend.

“I think there are still uncertainties over how the economy and how our services come out of the pandemic.

“Hopefully that will be positive over the coming months as the national lockdown arrangements and the road map out of that come into play.”

Along with noting the financial impact, Mr Little added: “I think behind all of this there’s been a huge amount of work across all departments of the council by lots of staff doing their normal jobs, but taking on the extra responsibility.

“It’s something the corporate management team wanted to say, how proud we are of our teams, the extra work they’ve put in, the effort they’ve put in, they’ve known how important it’s all been.”

Councillor Shane Moore, the leader of the council, singled out the council’s finance team while praising everyone who has supported the town over the last year.

He said: “Quite frankly they’ve been the unsung heroes during a lot of this.

“The amount of support they’ve given to both benefit claimants, and particularly in their fast work in creating whole new schemes around the business grants as well, getting that money out the door and really supporting our local businesses.”

Denise McGuckin, the council’s managing director, added: “It’s been a difficult year for everybody and our staff have been outstanding.”

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