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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how her Department plans to allocate the capacity funding for local government reorganisation; and when she plans to make that funding available to recipients.

The £7.6 million will be made available in the form of local government reorganisation proposal development contributions, to be split across the 21 areas that have been invited to submit proposals for unitary local government. This is the first time that capacity funding has been made available for reorganisation proposals, recognising the priority that this government attaches to this. Further information will be provided on how this will be allocated soon, and we intend to make payments as soon as possible.

As set out in the invitation to areas, considering the efficiencies that are possible through reorganisation, we expect that areas will be able to meet transition costs over time from existing budgets, including from the flexible use of capital receipts that can support authorities in taking forward transformation and invest-to-save projects. We asked areas to include indicative costs in their interim plans.