Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing adequate funding to local authorities to ensure the sustainability of (a) environmental health and (b) local housing enforcement teams.

The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available an additional £3 billion of taxpayer subsidy to councils in England, before local decisions about council tax changes are made. Councils can also make their own decisions to increase council tax by up to a further 3%, plus a further 2% for adult social care, should they deem it appropriate and proportionate to do so.

Taken together, this could mean an increase of 9% in cash terms compared to 2022/23.

The majority of this funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of councils being best placed to understand local priorities.