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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will commission independent research into the additional costs to local authority council tax support schemes of covid-19 and the subsequent economic downturn.

The Department publishes annual revenue budget and outturn data on local authority revenue expenditure and financing. These include council tax revenue foregone under local council tax support schemes. Outturn data for 2020-21 are scheduled for publication by Autumn 2021. These will capture costs to local authorities of providing local council tax support during the pandemic and will be available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing#2020-to-2021 .