Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Recovery Grant on local authorities in areas with high levels of deprivation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government introduced the £600 million Recovery Grant in 2025-26 to support those local authorities facing higher need and demand for services, and which are least able to fund their own services through income raised locally.
Following a large number of representations on the importance of this funding, the government confirmed in the local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 on 20 November that we would maintain all existing Recovery Grant allocations from 2025-26 across the multi-year Settlement. The government agrees – after years of funding cuts to local government, in which the most deprived places suffered the most – that the recovery is not over.
We will also provide a Recovery Grant Guarantee to upper tier authorities which were in receipt of the Recovery Grant. This will be capped at £35 million per authority over the multi-year period. These upper tier authorities will see an above real-terms increase, except for where the cap is applied.
We will publish provisional local authority allocations at the upcoming provisional multi-year Settlement in December. Proposals and allocations will be subject to consultation and the usual Parliamentary process.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of ensuring that the Fair Funding Review will ensure that the most deprived areas of the country will see the biggest increases in funding.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government published the local government finance policy statement Local government finance policy statement 2026-27 to 2028-29 - GOV.UK and government response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on Thursday 20 November which set out the government’s plans to introduce a fairer and evidence-led system, that will realign funding with need and deprivation.
The government has used the most robust and up to date evidence available. On this basis, we are now using data from the recently published 2025 Indices of Multiple Deprivation in our assessment of need.
We expect that by 2028-29, the top 10% most deprived authorities will see a significant increase in their Core Spending Power per head, compared to the least deprived.
We will publish provisional local authority allocations at the upcoming provisional multi-year Settlement in December. Proposals and allocations will be subject to consultation and the usual Parliamentary process.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has had recent discussions with postal workers on the potential impact of low-level letter boxes on health and safety at work.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 19554 on 18 December 2024.
My hon Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich has also agreed to meet with my hon Friend to discuss this matter.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of banning low level letter boxes on levels of injuries in postal workers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer my hon Friend to the answer I gave to Question UIN 19554 on 18 December 2024.
My hon Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich has also agreed to meet with my hon Friend to discuss this matter.