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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of local authorities who used reserves to balance their 2020-21 budgets.

Individual local authorities determine the level of reserves that they hold. Data on movements in reserves in 2020/21 will be made available when the Revenue Outturn data is published by the Department in October.

Throughout the pandemic, the Government has monitored the sector’s finances closely through a monthly reporting exercise. We will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on local government and would ask any local authority that is faced with an unmanageable pressure or is concerned about their future financial position to approach MHCLG for discussion.