Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many local authority accounts (a) were submitted on time and (b) remained outstanding after (i) 6, (ii) 12 and (iii) 24 months in each year from 2010 to 2024.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Public Sector Audit Appointments Ltd was created in 2014, and collects data on the proportion of local authority account audit opinions issued by the deadline each year.
This information is publicly available for example, 2014-15 to 2019-20 statistics are available at the following link; 2020-21 to 2021-22 statistics at the following link; and 2022-23 statistics at the following link.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the number of councils at risk of issuing Section 114 notices between 4 December 2023 and the Final Local Government Finance Settlement in February 2024.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As the Secretary of State explained before the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee on Wednesday 6 December, the Government monitors the financial health of local authorities on a regular basis using a wide range of data as well as through extensive direct engagement with councils.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the number of covid-19 Additional Relief Fund schemes which have (a) been established and (b) distributed funds to local businesses.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Local authorities are responsible for setting up their own local schemes and awarding support to businesses. Ministers and officials have regular conversations with counterparts in other Government departments.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect of the response to the covid-19 outbreak on the (a) (i) direct and (ii) indirect costs, (b) income and (c) other liabilities of Oldham council; and how much additional funding his Department has allocated to that local authority (A) for its covid-19 response and (B) to mitigate the effects of the outbreak.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
We are providing local authorities with an unprecedented package of support, including over £4.8 billion in funding for?spending?pressures, comprising of £3.7 billion of un-ringfenced grants and over £1.1 billion for the Infection Control Fund.
Oldham has received £16.64 million from the three rounds of unringfenced grants. Oldham has received £4.6 million from the Infection Control Fund.
In total, over £28 billion has been committed to local areas to support councils, businesses and communities across government. This comprehensive package of support includes direct financial support and cashflow measures for councils, bus and tram services, support for the homeless and both grants and rates reliefs for businesses, as well as several other grants.
In addition the Prime Minister has announced a further £1 billion of funding for local authorities, details of which will be announced shortly.
We will continue to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on local government and are taking steps to address and support individuals and local authorities.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will place in the Library a copy of the Fair Funding Review formula.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government aims to implement the local authority Review of Relative Needs and Resources in 2021-22, and plans to publish a major consultation on this in the Spring. We will place a copy of the consultation in the Library at that time.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with which councils and combined authorities is the Government currently consulting on devolution.
Answered by Jake Berry
Whilst we are not formally consulting any councils or combined authorities at present, the Secretary of State has had conversations with the leaders of councils in Yorkshire, as well as the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region, about future devolution to Yorkshire.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the report entitled, Research into drivers of service costs in rural areas: national analysis of unit costs, published by LG Futures in December 2014, whether the conclusions of that report will be used as an evidence base in his Department's review of local government funding.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government is undertaking a review of the relative needs and resources of local authorities in England, with a view to setting fresh baseline funding levels in 2020-21. We are working closely with local government representatives and others to examine all of the available evidence for the costs faced by authorities; including how factors such as rurality, sparsity and other geographical features affect the cost of delivering services across the country, and how to account for these in a robust manner.
Our December 2018 consultation paper (link below) set out a proposed Area Cost Adjustment approach, which uses the best available evidence, based on journey times, to reflect the impact of congestion in urban areas, as well as longer travel distances in rural areas on the relative cost of providing services. The consultation closed on 21 February and we will consider the many representations made in response, which will feed into the next phase of this work.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/review-of-local-authorities-relative-needs-and-resources.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department has received a request from Greater Manchester for mayoral precept powers to fund bus franchising.
Answered by Jake Berry
We have received a request from Greater Manchester Combined Authority [GMCA] to which we will respond, for an order amending the GMCA constitution, including providing for the Mayor to be responsible for all operational bus functions including operating and funding bus franchising. However, these constitutional changes are not required for the Combined Authority to start bus franchising.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent discussions he has had on replacing the European Regional Development Fund after the UK leaves the EU to ensure that funding to English regions is maintained.
Answered by Jake Berry
We will create the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) following our departure from the European Union. The new fund will tackle inequalities between communities by raising productivity, especially in those parts of our country whose economies are furthest behind.
We know that places require certainty of funding after we leave the European Union. The draft Withdrawal Agreement guarantees the UK will continue to take part in the 2014-2020 EU programmes until they end. We continue to plan for all scenarios, including a no deal, in which, the government has extended this guarantee for the full EU 2014-20 programme. This provides certainty and clarity in the event of a no-deal and allows for a smooth transition to a domestic replacement.
We will continue to engage widely ahead of a public consultation intended for later this year, providing all interested parties with an opportunity to convey their views. This will inform decisions on the operation and allocation of the UKSPF, which will be subject to the 2019 Spending Review.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to publish the local authority revenue expenditure and financing England: 2017 to 2018 provisional outturn.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the provisional outturn estimates of local authority revenue expenditure and financing for 2017 to 2018 on 23 August 2018.
Figures are available from: