Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will provide additional funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2026-27 for the cost of delivering services in rural and sparsely populated areas.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On Thursday 20 November, we published the government response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0, which sets out the government’s plan to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system. In doing so, we will target a greater proportion of grant funding towards the most deprived places which need it most, ensuring the best value for money for government and taxpayers.
The government recognises that different parts of the country face different costs for delivering the same services. For this reason, we propose to take account of variations in costs between local authorities through an Area Cost Adjustment (ACA). The ACA considers differences in labour and rental costs, as well as the cost impact of longer journey times.
We are also proposing to include a measure of remoteness, to account for the potential impact on cost for rural authorities that cannot readily access local markets because of their location. Taking into consideration the available evidence and the views of stakeholders, the government has made a judgement that remoteness should be accounted for when assessing the cost of delivering adult social care services.
Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
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 take steps to engage with local communities in Devon on local government restructuring.
Answered by Jim McMahon
The English Devolution White Paper sets out the Government’s plans for local government reorganisation, and that the Government will write to council leaders as soon as possible to formally invite proposals, setting out information on our criteria for sustainable unitary structures, how and when to submit proposals and how the government intends to respond to proposals.