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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the extent to which town and parish councils are exercising restraint in setting council tax precepts; and whether it remains his Department’s policy to defer setting referendum principles for those councils.

The Government monitors increases in town and parish council tax precepts annually and expects to publish data for 2023-24 in May. The department continues to set a clear expectation that such bodies should exercise restraint in setting increases, most recently in our response to the consultation on the provisional local government finance settlement for 2023-24.

Referendum principles for 2023-24, including the decision not to set them for town and parish councils, were approved by the House of Commons on 8 February. The Government will review its policy on town and parish precepts for 2024-25 as part of the local government settlement process.