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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what financial support they intend to provide to local councils to deal with any future COVID-19 outbreaks.

We have already provided local authorities with an unprecedented package of support.

Local authorities have been allocated £4.3bn of support which can be used for expenditure pressures, including £3.7bn of unringfenced grants and the £600m Infection Control Fund.

We have also introduced a co-payment scheme for relevant, irrecoverable income losses in 2020-21, where councils will bear the first 5% of income losses but the Government will cover 75p in every pound beyond this.

On tax we have announced that the repayment of collection fund deficits arising this year will be spread over the next three years rather than the usual one. This support will give councils considerable breathing room when setting budgets for next year before we make a fuller announcement at the Spending Review.