What we learned from today’s Downing Street coronavirus briefing

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick led the daily coronavirus briefing from Downing Street on Saturday, April 18.

He began by announcing an additional £1.6 billion of funding to help local councils respond to the crisis.

This brings the total amount of cash given to council's to £3.2 billion after an initial £1.6 billion was announced in March.

The government is also deferring £2.6 billion in business rates payments for councils and will be paying out £850 million in social care grants up front this month.

Jenrick confirmed that 250,000 packages of essential items have been delivered to those who are vulnerable and shielding as they are most at risk from the virus. This number is expected to rise to 300,000 in the next week.

The Government call centre set up in response to the crisis is making up to 130,000 calls a day to vulnerable residents to see if they need support.

According to the secretary of state since the initial £1.6 billion of funding was pledged to local authorities more than 90% of rough sleepers have been offered safe accommodation.

But he added there is “still a great deal to be done” and the new cash boost is set to help get more than 5,400 vulnerable people off the streets.

During the briefing the communities secretary made it clear to local councils that parks were to remain open but that people should continue to follow the social distancing guidelines.

Funerals are also to go ahead with close family members and councils should reopen any cemeteries or graveyards which have been closed to allow people to mourn privately.

The NHS is now said to have a “sufficient capacity” of ventilators with a total of 10,606 across the country.

However, Jenrick admitted that some items of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as aprons and gowns were still in “short supply” and said the government must “do more” to get supplies to those on the frontline.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you