HAMPSHIRE councils are set to receive millions of pounds to cover the cost of the coronavirus pandemic this winter.

The government will grant £6m to Southampton City Council and £8m to Hampshire County Council.

Each of the district councils in Hampshire is also set to receive a grant.

The cash will be used to provide vital services this winter.

The government has also pledged to provide an extra £100m for council leisure centres most in need.

The news comes as civic chiefs in Hampshire previously said the county council would need an extra £52m from central government as it faces a £210m shortfall by 2023 due to the Covid-19 crisis.

As previously reported, the city council in Southampton also confirmed that it set to face a £45m shortfall by the end of this financial year.

The extra grant has been welcomed by civic chiefs in Hampshire but some said it will not be enough.

Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead said: "This is not enough in comparison to what local authorities have had to spend and will have to spend to keep residents safe and healthy. It is also coming after ten long years of huge cuts to council funding leaving local authorities in an already precarious place to deal with any crisis such as this pandemic."

But Southampton Itchen MP Royston Smith stressed the latest funding will be in addition to the £16m already granted to the city council.

He said: "This awful pandemic has been challenging in all sorts of ways. People’s lives have been disrupted, their jobs put at risk but more significantly too many people have experienced first hand the cruelty of Covid."

The money is a share of the extra £1 billion of additional support for local council announced by Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick.

He said: “Since the start of the pandemic, we have backed local councils with the funding they need to support their communities, protect vital services and recover lost income. This extra £1 billion funding will ensure that councils have the resources that they need over the winter and continue to play an essential role on the front line of our response to the virus while protecting the most vulnerable and supporting local businesses.”

As previously reported, the county council has received £61m in non-ringfenced emergency funding since the start of the pandemic.

Here is how much each council in Hampshire will receive:

  • Basingstoke and Deane - £313,714
  • East Hampshire - £100,000
  • Eastleigh - £100,000
  • Fareham - £100,000
  • Gosport - £298,016
  • Hampshire - £8,784,329
  • Hart - £100,000
  • Havant - £621,728
  • New Forest - £204,463
  • Portsmouth - £5,345,670
  • Rushmoor - £301,590
  • Southampton - £6,048,116
  • Test Valley - £100,000
  • Winchester - £100,000