Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he had with representatives of local government before the announcement of 9 October 2019 of a 1 per cent increase in the interest rate on new loans from the Public Works Loan Board.

The Government engages sector representatives in policy development where possible. It was not possible to do that in this case because the change was market sensitive. The Local Government Association was notified of the decision after markets closed on 8 October 2019.