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.