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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the impact of local authority environmental health teams on ensuring good environmental health conditions for local communities; and what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for environmental health teams within local authorities.

Defra provides a large amount of funding and guidance through different routes to support local authorities.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up wrote to all local authorities on 19 November 2022, asking them to provide the Department with information on their assessment of damp and mould hazards in privately rented properties in their areas, and the action they are taking to remediate them.

The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available an additional £3 billion of taxpayer subsidy to councils in England, before local decisions about council tax changes are made. The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of councils being best placed to understand local priorities.”