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Written Question
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Social Media
Thursday 13th March 2025

Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many social media accounts her Department operates; and how much her Department spent on social media (a) subscriptions and (b) advertisements on each social media platform in each of the last three years.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

a) MHCLG Communications operate four social media accounts for MHCLG. Comms do not hold any subscriptions for these accounts

b) The MHCLG Communications costs to date (excluding VAT) of advertising on each social media platform over the last 3 years:

2022/23:

Meta - £591,780.28

LinkedIn - £215,043.04

Twitter - £150,037.83

NextDoor - £35,132.37

2023/24:

Meta - £508,648.87

LinkedIn - £199,990.22

Reddit - £160,410.28

Nextdoor - £38,999.29

2024/25:

Meta: £220,533.63

LinkedIn - £493.83

Reddit - £92,056.91

NextDoor - £32,271.44

The total cost of the LinkedIn for recruitment for the years 2023-24 and 2024-25 was £42,034.80 (excluding VAT) per year. The cost includes a recruiter licence, 21 job slots, MHCLG LinkedIn Careers page and dashboard manager seats

Written Question
Local Government: Debts
Monday 3rd March 2025

Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the cumulative level of debt held by local authorities in each of the last 15 years.

Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government collects data returns from local authorities including their borrowing and investment information. These returns are collated and published by MHCLG on gov.uk. There are various metrics by which debt can be measured. We have provided links to relevant information along with a summary what is available in each:

  • Borrowing and investment live tables - Live tables on local government finance - GOV.UK. This dataset shows all UK local authorities’ borrowing and investment on a quarterly basis. The data is split by each authority dating back to 2014. There is also an annual summary table which shows the cumulative balances on an annual basis.
  • Capital expenditure, receipts and financing - Local authority capital expenditure, receipts and financing - GOV.UK. This dataset is an annual return collected from English authorities only and dates back to 2000. These returns explain in more detail the expenditure of each authority and how these are financed, including each authority’s year end debt position, individually and in aggregate.

Other government departments including HMT and The Office of National Statistics provide their own datasets. One such example would be: LG: Local government gross debt - Office for National Statistics. This is not owned by MHCLG however does provide aggregate local government gross debt from 1966 to 2024.