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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he will take to support local authorities to reduce deficits accumulated as a result of covid-19-related expenditure.

The Government has allocated over £12 billion directly to councils since the start of the pandemic, over £6 billion of which is unringfenced, recognising that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet their major COVID-19 pressures.

We have also announced £1.6 billion additional grant for local government for each year of the next Spending Review which local authorities can use to meet funding pressures, including those exacerbated by the pandemic. We continue to closely monitor the sector's finances as we emerge from the pandemic.