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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of increasing funding to local authorities to cover the costs of (a) inflation and (b) increased energy costs in advance of the release of the Local Government Finance Settlement.

The 2021 Spending Review settlement took into account a wide range of cost pressures. We announced around £1.6 billion additional grant for local government in 2022/23, including funding for Supporting Families and Cyber Resilience. The Local Government Finance Settlement made available £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22.

Inflation forecasts are higher than they were at the 2021 Spending Review. How this interacts with the finances of local government is not straightforward. For example, some councils will have energy contracts expiring soon, whereas others will be fixed for some time. We are working closely with local authorities to monitor the impact on service delivery and budgets.

Councils will, of course, benefit from the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme this winter.