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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what methodology was used to calculate the council tax requirement, excluding parish precepts, in (a) Core spending power table: final local government finance settlement 2024 to 2025, published on 5 February 2024, and (b) Council Tax levels set by local authorities in England 2024 to 2025, published on 8 May 2024.

The Government has confirmed that it will not increase council tax referendum principles above the current 3% core council tax principle and the 2% principle for the adult social care precept, in line with the OBR forecasting. This is a continuation of the previous government’s policy, and informs the Core Spending Power figures for both 2024-25 and 2025-26. Further details will be set out at the Local Government Finance settlement.

The Government has published an explanatory note on the methodology used to calculate Core Spending Power for the 2024-25 Local Government Finance Settlement. The note is available on the Gov.UK website here.