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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on encouraging local authorities to invest more of their reserves in local communities.

Councils are free to determine the level of reserves they hold and are accountable to their electorate for the decisions they make. No powers exist to redistribute/reclaim this resource. All local authorities are required to hold sufficient unallocated reserves to meet unforecastable financial risks.

Many council’s reserves are earmarked for particular purposes. Earmarked reserves are funds that are spent at the discretion of the local authority.