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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure local authorities have adequate levels of Government funding.

The Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025-26 makes available over £69 billion for local government, which is a 6.8% cash terms increase in councils’ Core Spending Power on 2024-25.

Taken together, the additional funding announced by the Chancellor at the Autumn Budget and through the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement will provide over £5 billion of new funding for local services over and above local council tax. This includes: an additional £2 billion of grant through the Settlement; a guarantee that local authorities in England will receive at least £1.1 billion in total in 2025-26 from the new Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) scheme; and a further £233 million of additional funding for homelessness services.

We are also taking immediate action to begin addressing the significant challenges facing local government by ensuring that funding goes to the places that need it most in 2025-26.

The Government is committed to introducing an improved and updated approach to funding local authorities from 2026-27.

The Ministry works closely with local government and other government departments to understand specific demand and cost pressures facing local government on an ongoing basis.

We recognise the challenges that local authorities are facing as demand increases for critical services. Funding allocations from future settlements are subject to the outcome of future Spending Reviews.