A SLICE of £900m from the taxpayer will be used to help refill Oxfordshire's ailing council coffers, depleted by Covid.

Councils all across the UK have spent extra cash on services and lost money due to the pandemic.

In the fourth and latest round of funding announced yesterday (Thursday, October 22) to help them maintain local services, the Government is giving out a total of £1bn to councils.

£900m of this is non-ringfenced funding meaning councils can spend it however they like, and a further £100m is aimed at keeping public leisure centres afloat.

Out of the £900m, Oxfordshire's councils will collectively receive more than £5m.

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Most of this, £3,900,272 will go to Oxfordshire County Council, which looks after social care services, highways, and libraries across the county.

Oxford City Council is set to receive a further £575,737.

Cherwell District Council will receive £316,922.

And the other three district councils, Vale of White Horse, South Oxfordshire, and West Oxfordshire, will all receive the minimum amount in the latest round of funding: £100,000.

Oxford and Cherwell have likely received larger grants because they had larger budget shortfalls than the other districts.

This was in part because they invested in commercial property as a means of supplementing budgets after austerity cuts, and felt the sting of the economic hit caused by Covid more harshly as a result.

Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick MP 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.”