Senior Cornwall councillors will consider next week how it will plug the gap in its finances created by the response to coronavirus.

The council has said it expects the total impact of Covid-19 on its finances to top £74 million but this will be spread across different financial years.

This is due to the full cost of the pandemic including extra spending, undelivered savings, loss of income and a drop in business rates and council tax.

A report on the current financial picture is set to go before the council’s Cabinet when it meets next Wednesday (July 22).

It states that while the council has been given £333m by the Government only £34.4m of that has been to cover costs to the council from the pandemic and loss of income. Most of the money has been paid out to businesses in the form of grants.

Council officers report that for the current financial year the council is forecasting a gap of £43m which means that there is a shortfall of £10m in funding from the Government to cover the costs.

The Government has previously stated that it will provide additional funding and the Cabinet report says “it is anticipated that the additional funding should cover the majority of this gap”.

Officers say that the council is in “the fortunate position” of having enough reserves to cover the gap in funding but has warned that too much reliance on reserves could “leave the council in a financially unstable position”.

The Cabinet report also includes a breakdown of the additional costs that the council has had as a result of Covid-19 as well as the loss of income.

With the pandemic falling across two financial years the council has provided the data for both 2019/20 and 2020/21.

For 2019/20 the additional costs – which include PPE (personal protective equipment), the temporary mortuary – were £200,000; while the loss of income from parking and other activity was £1.4m.

In 2020/21 the additional costs are expected to be £19.4m; the loss of income £19.5m and it is expected that £4.1m of planned savings will not be delivered.

The council has also provided an estimate for how much it could lose in council tax and business rates from 2021/22 and subsequent years.

It says that this could be £23.2m based on a five per cent loss in council tax income and a 10 per cent loss in business rates.

Cornwall Council’s Cabinet will meet on Wednesday (July 22) to discuss the report.