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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department made of the needs of urban areas when allocating £1 billion of additional funding in the provisional local government finance settlement.

The final local government finance settlement confirmed a real-terms increase in available funding for local authorities to help deliver local services, support vulnerable residents and build vibrant communities.

This includes an additional £650 million for social care, allocated using the well-established Adult Social Care relative needs formula, which takes into account the relative needs of local authorities, including in urban areas.

The additional resources provided through the settlement also included the distribution of £180 million of surplus in the business rates retention levy account, which was allocated on the basis of each authority’s 2013-14 Settlement Funding Assessment. The Settlement Funding Assessment is a measure of the relative needs of local authorities, including in urban areas.

Funding baselines for every authority are determined by an assessment of the relative needs of areas, including measures of deprivation.