Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marcus Jones and Alex Norris

Monday 30th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

T3. In 2016, the Department for Communities and Local Government provided a transition grant to some local authorities. The calculations and assumptions for this were not published, and 80% of it went to Conservative councils. Will Ministers pledge today to make previous and future calculations available, and will they confirm from the Dispatch Box that future funding will be based on need rather than on anything else?

[Mr Marcus Jones]

This was part of an historic four-year settlement, to which 97% of local authorities signed up. Yes, there were some challenges relating to the transition that certain places would have to make as a result of the formula at that time, and it has been widely recognised that that was dealt with in the right way. Labour authorities such as Lancashire benefited from it at the time.