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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to provide support to (a) Liverpool City Region and (b) Wirral Council in response to the (a) reduction in income and (b) increase in expenditure as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

We are supporting authorities in the fight against coronavirus with over £3.2 billion of additional funding. Across both tranches of funding, Liverpool City Region has received £102 million extra to fight this pandemic, whilst Wirral Council has received over £20 million. This funding is unringfenced to allow councils to respond to local priorities, and is in addition to that from other departments – for example to support bus services, Fire and Rescue authorities and local businesses – and the most recent local government finance settlement which provides access to the largest year-on-year increase in Core Spending Power in a decade.