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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to improve service delivery by local authorities in rural areas; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to providing local government with the support it needs to meet future challenges and to continue to improve services that local people want to see.

The Government is also committed to devolving powers from Whitehall to rural as well as urban areas. My rt. hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced on 16 July historic new powers for Cornwall as part of the first devolution deal for an English county. This includes bus franchising, integration of health and social care, and greater influence on skills and investment funding. As with cities the Government expect to negotiate further devolution deals with rural areas over the coming months and years.

In addition, in 2015-16 the Rural Services Delivery Grant was increased by £4 million to £15.5 million to recognise the challenges the most rural local authorities face in delivering services.

The Government has also provided significant funding to support the sector to improve services (£23.4 million in 2015-16). The sector can shape, through the Local Government Association, how this funding is used to support all authorities, including rural ones.

Furthermore, the productivity plan, published on 10 July, set out our continued commitment to shifting the delivery and design of services to the local level, promoting the use of shared services and increasing the use of digital technology and data sharing to enable services to reduce costs and increase outputs. We will work with areas on these issues ahead of the forthcoming Spending Review.