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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the feasibility of temporarily removing statutory constraints on local government finance to help local authorities manage the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on their finances.

Government does not currently intend to temporarily remove any of the statutory framework that governs local government finance. However, changes have been made to the statutory audit framework to delay the requirement to prepare and approve draft accounts by the end of May. Instead, they must be approved by 31 August 2020 at the latest or may be approved earlier, wherever possible.

In addition, Government has announced £3.2 billion un-ringfenced funding to support councils to deliver essential front line services – this is an unprecedented sum of money and demonstrates the Government's commitment to support the sector. In addition, we have agreed to defer £2.6 billion in business rates payments, and have brought forward £850 million in social care grants, to ease immediate pressures on local authority cash flow.