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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he will make available additional funding for Sheffield children's services to tackle that local authority's overspend in 2017-2018.

Local authorities may incur more expenditure than they have budgeted for, which is why they are required to maintain a level of unallocated reserve commensurate with sound financial risk management. However, recognising the pressures on local services and impact of inflation, the Local Government Finance Settlement provided all councils with the ability to increase their council tax by an additional one per cent, without a local referendum. This strikes the right balance between allowing local authorities to make tough decisions to address service pressures, and protecting council tax-payers from excessive bill rises.