THE coronavirus crisis is set to cost Hampshire councils more than £80m and the cost could go up, it has been revealed.

According to Hampshire County Council’s latest estimate, the authority will spend £68m in the 2020-21 financial year to respond and recover from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Southampton City Council is facing a £8.5m shortfall by the end of July, it has been revealed.

It comes as the city council has estimated that by the end of next month it will have incurred additional costs of £22.9m against its budget.

Loss of income and growing demand especially in children and social care services are the biggest challenges facing the councils, civic chiefs said.

The news come as both Hampshire and Southampton councils received more than £67m of Covid-19 emergency funding from central government over the past months.

But civic chiefs in Southampton have warned that the grant is not enough.

Cllr Stephen Barnes-Andrews, cabinet member for finance and income generation at the city council, said: “. We have received a grant of £14.4m from government which is welcome support but does clearly not cover the cost of our response. I look forward to constructive conversations with central government on ensuring we are supported to continue delivering our vital services .”

When asked how much money the city council has in unallocated reserves, the authority said that 17.3m is the forecast sum available as uncommitted at the end of the three year period of the medium term strategy.

But it stressed that councils need reserves for other potential risks.

In the 2020-21financial year the city council was planning to spend £190.8m and said the figures do not include the Housing Revenue Account or the Capital Investment programme.It did not confirm whether it needs to prepare an emergency budget but it said that the position with regard to the budget is under constant review.

Meanwhile, the county council said it does not need to prepare an emergency budget at this stage .

The authority said its net revenue budget for 2020-21 is £795m and it expects its total usable reserves to be around £575m in 2019-20. However, of this amount 96.1% is earmarked for a specific purpose, the council said, with unallocated reserves standing at £22m. Cllr Keith Mans, leader at the county council, said: “There will also be further costs and losses associated with the recovery phase of the crisis. However, it is difficult to predict with absolute certainty the costs that we may face beyond the end of June, and our recovery and demand costs can only be speculative at this stage. We will be undertaking further work to explore the evolving financial picture in greater detail - in particular, as we emerge from lockdown over the coming weeks and months.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it has provided £27bn to councils, businesses and communities. A MHCLG spokesperson added: “Hampshire County Council and Southampton City Council have received a combined total of more than £68 million of emergency funding, while their core spending power rose by a combined total of £67.2 million this financial year even before additional emergency funding was announced.We will continue to work closely with councils across the region to develop an ongoing assessment of costs as they support their communities through this national emergency.”