Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lee Rowley and Ian Byrne

Monday 5th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ian Byrne (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab)]

4. What steps he is taking to help local authorities with budgetary pressures caused by inflation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Lee Rowley)]

I am not sure that I can respond with quite so much brevity, Mr Speaker!

In the most recent financial settlement, the Government provided billions more in taxpayer subsidy to support councils, including funds to mitigate inflation. Councils are always under a duty and a responsibility to improve and transform services and make them more efficient, but the Government continue to support them when we are able to do so.

[Ian Byrne]

A recent report from our Select Committee highlights the fact that local authorities’ revenue funding from central Government has been reduced dramatically since austerity began in 2010, and notes that levelling-up funds generally do not replace grant funding because they are capital, not revenue. Can the Minister be honest and admit that the latest local government finance settlement will entrench and widen already huge regional inequalities, leaving the levelling-up agenda in tatters?

[Lee Rowley]

Absolutely not. [Laughter.]