Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans she has to include funding for home-to-school transport in the local government finance settlement in the 2026-27 financial year.

Funding for home-to-school transport is allocated to local authorities via un-ringfenced funding through the Local Government Finance Settlement. In total, the Local Government Finance Settlement for financial year 2025-26 makes available £69 billion to local authorities.

We invited views from the local government sector through the “local authority funding reform objectives and principles consultation”, which was open from 18 December to 12 February. It sought views on the approach to local authority funding reform to be implemented via the Local Government Finance Settlement from 2026-27.

We will be consulting on more detailed proposals following the Spending Review in June.