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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how often her Department assesses compliance costs associated with local government administration.

The Department regularly engages with authorities across the country to understand the administrative costs councils face, and to work with the sector to reduce these.

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. The majority of funding in the Settlement is unringfenced, recognising that local leaders are best placed to identify local priorities.