As speculation about the upcoming Spending Review begins to grow, we should not forget about the impact of COVID on council finances.

If we cast our minds back to April last year you may remember that in order to gain a better understanding of the financial impact of the pandemic, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) began distributing a monitoring form asking councils their best estimates of COVID pressures. It is hard to believe that we are now on the 15th iteration of this process. Who thought we would still be counting the cost almost a year and a half later?