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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Chancellor of the Exchequer has taken through his Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 to help ensure that local authorities will be able to fund ongoing covid-19 management costs.

Councils have been essential to the national response to COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, we have committed over £12 billion to local authorities to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on their services, over £6 billion of which is un-ringfenced in recognition that they are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 pressures in their local areas.