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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the additional Government funding that has been allocated to local authorities who prior to the second national covid-19 lockdown announcement were in Tier (a) 1, (b) 2, and (c) 3 of local covid-19 lockdown restrictions; and whether that funding will continue to be delivered by local authorities despite that lockdown announcement.

Government has already provided £6.4 billion directly to councils since the start of the pandemic. This included a commitment by the Department of Health and Social Care of up to £465 million in funding for English local authorities through the Local COVID Alert Level system, on top of £300 million already allocated to local authorities in England for test, trace and contain activity.

We are now providing new funding as we head into the national restrictions. With national restrictions replacing local ones on Thursday 5 November, Government has confirmed further support for local authorities through the extension of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Additional Restrictions Grant and Business Grants for closed businesses, together with backdated cash grants for businesses in Local Alert Level 2 and 3 areas and additional funding for supporting the clinically extremely vulnerable.