The government must provide certainty on funding in the medium and long-term as local authorities face the double whammy of the pandemic and Brexit, Hounslow Council has said.

It comes as a report by London Mayor Sadiq Khan sets out the implications of Brexit and London's economy.

The analysis shows a potential annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) loss of £9.5bn but also says that economic costs could be even higher if the government fails to reach agreements with the EU to close trade deal gaps for the UK's financial and professional services firms.

Cllr Shantanu Rajawat, Hounslow Council's Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, said: "Councillor Rajawat said: "Even while our budget is out for consultation, Sadiq Khan's report strengthens our case that, while we remain on a sound footing to deliver on our ambitions for Hounslow's recovery from COVID-19 the government must meet our calls for certainty and funding to help us deal with the medium to long-term.

"We have voiced our concerns that COVID-19 will not go quickly as it came. We know its impacts will be felt into the future, and this report now starts to show that the financial impacts of Brexit, which even yet cannot be completely known to us, will not be at all positive for Hounslow, London, or the UK more widely.

"Our proposed budget maintains our reputation for sound financial management, but the Government has not matched that, or our ambition.

"We have been left with no sense of long-term security or certainty, with unanswered calls for an Aviation Communities Fund and support for our budget. In effect, the Government has obliged us to raise a COVID-Tax to meet the costs of this crisis, even before the impacts of the next one - Brexit."

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