Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on local authority finances of student accommodation being exempt from council tax and business rates.

The Local Government Finance Settlement takes into account the impact of student exemptions on local authorities’ income in its funding distribution methodology. The way we allocate funding in future – including how to account for differences in ability to raise local taxes - is being considered by the review of relative needs and resources.