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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what consultations he is undertaking with (a) Christchurch Borough Council and (b) East Dorset District Council on the content of potential draft secondary legislation on future harmonisation of council taxes in Dorset.

Before making any new secondary legislation we intend to invite comments on those preliminary views from the shadow authorities for the areas concerned, which will be responsible for setting the 2019-20 council taxes – in the case of Dorset from the Shadow Dorset Council, the members of which include the members of East Dorset District Council, and from the Shadow Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council, the members of which include the members of Christchurch Borough Council.