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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 on West Berkshire Council, with regards to their capacity to sustain statutory services and meet local demand.

On Thursday 20 November, we published the government response to the Fair Funding Review 2.0, which sets out the government’s plan to introduce a fairer and evidence-led funding system.

The government is making good on long overdue promises to fundamentally update the way we fund local authorities, realigning funding with need and deprivation. We are delivering fairer funding and targeting money where it is needed most through the first multi-year Settlement in a decade from 2026-27, and giving local authorities greater flexibility and certainty by streamlining over 33 funding streams worth almost £47 billion.

We expect that 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 provisional local authority allocations at the upcoming provisional multi-year Settlement in December. Proposals and allocations will be subject to consultation and the usual Parliamentary process.