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 impact of Tower Hamlets Council’s decision not to publish the costs of its town hall project; and what statutory powers he has to help ensure that public expenditure on public projects of £100 million and over are published.

Local authorities are autonomous public bodies responsible to their electorate for the decisions they take. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is responsible for the oversight of local government and is interested in understanding issues around financial viability, leadership and standards of corporate governance, however, central government and ministers do not have a remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of a council, except in exceptional circumstances of most serious concern.

Transparency is the foundation of local accountability. The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 introduced a localised audit regime for local authorities in England, which included mandatory transparency requirements for principal councils to improve local accountability together with the ability for local people to better hold their councils to account.

Electors are entitled to inspect the accounts and other documents – including audit opinions and can ask questions of, and make objections to, the local authorities’ external auditor, who is required to respond. Details of this process can be found in the Local Authority Accounts: A guide to your rights, published by the National Audit Office: https://www.nao.org.uk/code-audit-practice/council-accounts-a-guide-to-your-rights/.