Enfield Council is stepping up its campaign to get a better funding deal from central government.

The council has launched a webpage where people can back its efforts to secure more money for public health and greater support for the costs of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Enfield receives less public health funding than neighbouring boroughs, according to a council report. It gets just £50.01 per head, compared to £71.90 for Haringey and £108.14 for Islington.

The council has also suffered a £30 million dent in its finances due to the Covid-19 pandemic – and some of this will need to be covered by increasing income levels, making more savings and using reserves.

It comes on top of £193 million of savings and income generation made by the council since 2010 to offset cuts to grant funding and growing demand for services.

Council leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak in January to raise concerns over the Government’s proposal to allow local authorities to increase council tax by up to five per cent.

The letter reads: “This council tax increase will place the burden unfairly on our residents and communities, making it increasingly difficult for families who are already struggling to make ends meet.

“At a time when so many have lost their jobs or are earning less as a result of being on furlough, this is totally unacceptable.”

During a full council meeting on Thursday, Cllr Caliskan claimed the Government had failed to stick to a promise made at the beginning of the pandemic to stand shoulder to shoulder with councils.

Community First – a group of four ex-Labour councillors – backed the council’s lobbying efforts.

But the Conservative group voted against, claiming the Labour administration had conflated several separate issues. The Tories said they had previously backed campaigns for more public health funding and would continue to do so.

Shadow cabinet member for finance Cllr James Hockey said the Government had stepped in to address Covid-19 costs and it was the local authority’s decision to increase council tax.

“Let’s focus on one issue – addressing the public health damping, rather than these political attacks that the administration keeps making on the Government,” he said.

The webpage set up to lobby the Government for fairer funding is available here.