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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will provide additional financial support to local authorities in the financial year 2023-24 to support pay rises in line with inflation for (a) care workers, (b) social workers and (c) those working in refuse collection.

The Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England, which equates to an increase of up to £3.7 billion compared to 2021/22.

Local government pay is negotiated between the National Joint Councils employer and union representatives. Pay is ultimately a decision for local councils, and it is the responsibility of employers to make an assessment on what is affordable within the overall available resources.

We are working closely with the sector, as we always do, to understand what the impact of cost and demand pressures will be on service delivery and budgets in 2023/24. We will set out more details later this year at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement.