Coronavirus: Poorer areas miss out as £100m of emergency cash diverted to richer Tory councils with lower infection rates
The IndependentSign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Yet, when the cash was announced, local government minister Simon Clarke said it was to recognise that councils are “the unsung heroes of the fight against Covid-19” and faced huge extra costs as a result. The Labour analysis follows a study by the Health Foundation finding that the risk of dying from coronavirus is more than twice as great in the most deprived areas of England as in the least. Steve Reed, the shadow local government secretary, condemned the way funds had been allocated after ministers “promised to fund ‘whatever it takes’ to get communities through this pandemic”. “Now the government is cutting emergency funding for areas with the highest rates of Covid-19 infection and diverting it to areas that are suffering less,” he told The Independent. “It is disgraceful if funding is being allocated in that partisan way, after what ministers said about putting away party-political squabbles in a time of national crisis.” In total, more than £100m was diverted from councils in the bottom half of the deprivation index, when £1.6bn of emergency grants were announced in late April, according to the Labour analysis.