Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if his Department will (a) reassess the application of the Remoteness Adjustment across all funding formulas, in the context of levels of supporting evidence and (b) make an assessment of the potential merits of its application on a service-by-service basis.

The government is carefully considering views expressed by the public, local authorities and other bodies on the proposals set out in the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation, including on the application of a remoteness adjustment, the distribution of grants and transitional arrangements.

The government’s proposals will target central government grant funding to where it is needed the most, and the vast majority of councils with social care responsibilities will see their Core Spending Power increase in real terms over the multi-year Settlement.

We will publish further information and set out details through a policy statement and in the government’s consultation response shortly, followed by the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year.