Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment his Department has made of Cornwall Council's ability to fulfil its statutory duties.

It is for locally elected councils to make decisions around services and priorities in their local areas.

All local councils are being supported by the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 which makes available an additional £3.5 billion. This is an increase in local authority funding for 2022/23 of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services. For Cornwall Council this means Core Spending Power increasing from £513.5 million to £549.3 million. In addition, Cornwall Council has also received £99.1 million from Future High Streets Fund and the towns fund, to support the levelling up agenda in 4 towns across the county.

Officials from the Department regularly speak with a range of local authorities around their finances as part of ongoing engagement with the sector. Officials are also in regular communication with Cornwall Council in relation to the levelling up agenda. Any local council which is worried about their finances is encouraged to talk to the Department as soon as possible.