The impact of Covid-19 and our response

Impact of Coronavirus

By the end of 2019/20 the Council had established a stable financial position and had plans to strengthen this over the coming years. However, like most other organisations, the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic have created an unprecedented financial challenge. During the first three months of the pandemic the Council incurred approximately £260,000 of additional expenditure and saw income fall by approximately £1.6 million.

If we cannot close this financial gap this year the Council will be drawing £1.2 million from its reserves in 2020/21, which is nearly a quarter of its savings. We predict that a further £1.8m of reserves will need to be drawn in in the next year too. The chart below shows the impact this will have on our reserves.

Supporting the community durign COVID-19

During the pademic the Council has provided a great deal of aid to local residents and businesses. As well as ensuring our essential frontline services continued to be provided, we also:

• Issued more than 2,000 grants to local businesses worth £20.4m in support
• Gave small grants of £250 to community groups
• Supported food banks across the Borough
• Provided financial rescue packages for leisure centres
• Supported Fareham Market traders
• Provided free parking for critical key workers e.g. NHS staff 

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