Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the classification of (a) non-statutory and (b) statutory services provided by councils, in the context of the closure of (i) public toilets and (ii) other non-statutory services following council bankruptcies.

Good provision of non-statutory services, such as public toilets, is an important issue which local leaders are best placed to make decisions on based on the needs of their communities. The English Devolution White Paper, as well as the recently published Local Government finance settlement, set our plans to give councils more autonomy and financial stability to plan and make these decisions.