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 has taken to consult with stakeholders on the adequacy of the rurality weighting in the new council funding settlement.

Places with a significant rural population will on average receive almost a 6% increase in their Core Spending Power for 25-26, which is a real terms increase alongside new funding available to rural areas in 2025-26 through guaranteed EPR payments.

I regularly meet with stakeholders to discuss current and future local government funding, including on rurality. We also invited views from the sector on long-awaited finance reforms through the local authority funding reform objectives and principles consultation. This included our proposal to continue to apply Area Cost Adjustments to account for relative cost differences between local authorities, including differences between rural and urban areas. We will be consulting on more detailed proposals following the Spending Review.