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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending local government funding settlements to place greater weight on need than local tax raising ability.

The local government finance system operates a needs-based approach. Funding allocations in the Local Government Finance Settlement reflect local circumstances, such as the demand for services from the local population and the cost of delivering those services in that authority. Funding allocations also take into account the differing ability for each council to raise revenue from council tax.

The Government committed to prioritise stability and certainty for local government when we published the local government finance policy statement on 12 December 2022.

However, the Government is committed to reforming the local government funding landscape in the next Parliament.