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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the reported shortfall in council budgets following the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has committing a total of over £12 billion in England to support local authorities in tackling the impacts of Covid-19. Over £6 billion of this is un-ringfenced in recognition that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major pressures in their local area.

In addition to this the Government made available an increase in Core Spending Power in England from £49 billion in 2020-21 to up to £51.3 billion in 2021-22, a 4.6% increase in cash terms. This recognised the resources councils need to meet their pressures and maintain current service levels.

We have continued to work with local government as the pandemic has progressed, including through specially tailored financial monitoring. Our latest figures show that local authorities spent a total of £6.9 billion in responding to the pandemic in 2020-21, against funding provided of over £9 billion.

As the local government finance system continues to move into a more stable position, we will assess the demands faced by councils and the resources available to meet them in the context of the upcoming Spending Review.