Councils have stepped up when the country needed us most ? we call on the Government to recognise the crucial role that key workers have already played and will play in Britain?s recovery from Covid. This is the rallying cry from councils up and down the country across the political spectrum.

This council has been decimated by the Government?s austerity programme over the last decade, which has seen our Government funding for day-to-day services slashed by 80%. Like other councils we have been forced to cut services, cut jobs and look at new ways to bring in income. Unfortunately, most of those funding streams have dried up during the pandemic, making a bad situation even worse. Government has tasked councils with responding to the Covid crisis, which we are well placed and willing to do but this places us under even greater financial strain. We estimate the cost of Covid and lost income to be at least ?56m, with only ?20m coming from Government so far.

Without urgent support from the Government, councils are facing a funding black hole that threatens vital services. I alongside many other council leaders will continue to the lobby the Government to make good on their commitment to ?stand shoulder to shoulder? with us.

Getting children back to school is a priority for Nottingham?s families, schools and for this council. However, we have all recognised the need to take a cautious approach with this. We have seen a gradual increase in pupils from Year 6 and now feel that local authority schools are in a position to begin the phased return of children from other year groups.

Since the beginning of June we have seen a sustained fall in the number of cases of Covid-19 and an increase in the capacity for testing children and adults. Coupled with the valuable experience schools have already gained from remaining open to key workers? children and bringing back Year 6, many schools are now feeling confident that they can start to open up to more children and we support them.

We recognise that for each individual child the decision at this time rests with parents/carers based upon their judgment and the council would like to make clear that if parents and carers choose to keep their children at home, they will not be fined for non-attendance.

As ever, I really do thank all our local schools and their teams as well as local families for all the tremendous efforts made to ensure that Nottingham?s children continue to learn over this uncertain period.?

This pandemic has shown why nature and green spaces are important to people. More so than ever, local green spaces have become our neighbourhood gyms, our cycling tracks and our therapeutic escape. Use of urban parks has greatly increased and polling has shown that the public appreciate local green spaces more - and that they want them to be a higher Government priority.?

Deep inequalities have been exposed over this pandemic; communities that have been hardest hit by the virus and its fallout have the least access to green spaces. The Covid recovery period will give us all the opportunity to think radically and to increase quality of life for all. Research has shown that green infrastructure schemes have proved themselves economically, it makes sense to build towns and cities where people want to live and importantly invest in.

I wrote to the Government to urge them to seize this opportunity to transform the quality of all urban lives in the UK by committing to a significant investment in urban green infrastructure. We have a number of schemes in Nottingham that are ?shovel-ready? - we now just need the Government to be bold and ambitious for our green future.

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