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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to allow local authorities to set multi-annual budgets.

The annual balanced budget requirement is a key element of the local authority financial control framework. It means that the council is content that underlying income will cover ongoing costs and future commitments in a sustainable and manageable way.

In addition to preparing annual balanced budgets local authorities should prepare multi-year Medium Term Financial Plans. In order to support effective multi-year financial planning the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government published an historic four year local government finance settlement on 8 February 2016. Councils across England applied for the four year offer on the 14 October and the government will respond as soon as practicable.