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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on levels of reserves held by local authorities; and if he will make a statement.

My Department continuously engages Her Majesty’s Treasury on local authority reserve levels as part of our routine work on local government finances.

Individual local authorities determine the level of reserves that they hold and are accountable to their electorate for the decisions they make.