Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what additional funding his Department is making available to local authorities to help enable them to meet decarbonisation targets.

The National Audit Office recently identified £1.2 billion in grant funding made available to Local Government in 2020-2021 targeted on specific net zero actions, such as building retrofit. These figures do not include the extensive funding that enable local authorities to incorporate net zero action into their wider delivery, such as the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund, where projects need to be aligned to net zero goals.

In addition, the Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England. The majority of this funding is not ringfenced so local authorities decide spending priorities, including on decarbonisation.