Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees hopes for lowest possible tier after coronavirus lockdown
The Mayor of Bristol has said he hopes the city can move into the lowest tier possible after the national lockdown with the confidence the council is "not acting inappropriately".
In a virtual press conference, Marvin Rees said the lower the tier, the lower the financial impact to Bristol City Council. He said the authority could save around £1.5million if the city moved into Tier 2 instead of Tier 3.
The cost of each tier
Tier Two:
Would cost the council approximately £6m a month. According to Mr Rees, the government would funds around £4.6m, leaving a £1.5m shortfall.
Tier Three:
Would cost the council more than £8m a month. The government would funds around £5.2m, according to Marvin Rees, leaving a £2.8m shortfall.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to announce which tier each city will enter on Thursday 26 November.
During the first coronavirus wave, Bristol had some of the lowest rates of infection in the country but now has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infections in England.
However, the second lockdown has helped bring numbers down with Bristol's daily coronavirus cases now at a seven-week low.
According to the latest Government data, 89 people were diagnosed with the virus yesterday (Tuesday, 24 November) with a rate of 390.2 new cases per 100,000.
The last time the city's daily infections dropped below 100 was on October 4, when 74 were reported.
Rishi Sunak has revealed the eye-watering cost of fighting the coronavirus pandemic, with UK borrowing set to hit almost £400 billion, the economy expected to contract by 11% and unemployment predicted to rise to 7.5%.
The chancellor, announcing his Spending Review, said Britain's "economic emergency has only just begun" and the damage to the economy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be "lasting".
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that £20-30 billion would need to be made up in either spending cuts or tax rises in order to balance the books and stop debt from rising by the end of this Parliament.