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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what methodology his Department uses when calculating a council taxbase in the context of the Local Government Finance Settlement.

The government believes it is right to continue to calculate Core Spending Power in line with the approach used at previous Settlements. We are therefore assuming each authority’s council tax base increases in line with the average annual growth in their council tax base between 2021-22 and 2025-26.

We are rewarding local authorities for housebuilding by not making a council tax base projection in Fair Funding Allocations awarded through the Local Government Finance Settlement. Any increase in council tax income from new homes will therefore be additional across the multi-year Settlement.