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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking in response to the National Audit Office report, Local government finance in the pandemic, published March 10 2021.

The Department engaged closely with the NAO throughout the development of their report. The report sets out that the Government acted swiftly and flexibly in the face of the unprecedented challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and that there was intensive engagement with the sector throughout this period. The Department joins the NAO in acknowledging the invaluable contribution councils have made to the pandemic response. We welcome these and other findings of the report, and have begun to implement the recommendations