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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to help financially support councils using reserves to cover shortfalls in spending.

The Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion of taxpayer subsidy in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22, including, over £1 billion specifically for councils to meet social care pressures.

Further announcements will be made on the proposed local Government finance settlement in the coming weeks ahead.

We are working closely with the sector, as we always do, to monitor the impact on service delivery and budgets.