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 usable reserves held by each local authority in each year since 2010.

Local authorities are free to determine the level of reserves they hold on an annual basis and are accountable to their electorate for the decisions they make.

The financial framework is designed to ensure that adequate reserve levels are held by local authorities. This is done through legislation which requires local authorities to make an assessment annually on the adequacy of the financial reserves which are held. This aspect of the framework is crucial in ensuring that all local authorities hold sufficient unallocated reserves to meet unforeseeable financial risks

Local authorities report their usable reserves balances in a section of an annual Government return called 'Local Authority Revenue Expenditure and Financing Final Outturn'. These returns are published annually on the GOV.UK website. Categories are broken down into unallocated amounts (as referred to above) and earmarked balances which will usually be set aside for specific purposes. The data collection also includes ring-fenced reserves.

Attached is a link to that data source which contains links to each financial year's data on reserves including 2010/11. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing