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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Spending Round 2019, what the planned increase in the (a) grant to and (b) spending power of local councils for the next financial year will be in (a) real and (b) cash terms; and what estimate he has made of the increase in council tax required to achieve the spending power increase.

The government recently announced the largest year-on-year real terms increase in spending power for local government in almost a decade. Core Spending Power is expected to rise by £2.9 billion from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21, a cash increase of 6.3 per cent and an estimated real terms increase of 4.3 per cent.

This includes an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care, on top of the continuation of existing social care grants. Subject to consultation and the House of Commons approving council tax referendum principles, councils will have access to an additional £1.6 billion through council tax, as part of the Local Government Finance Settlement, based on a 2 per cent core referendum principle and a 2 per cent adult social care precep