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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that (a) local resilience forums and (b) local authorities (i) engage and (ii) collaborate with the local voluntary and community sector to ensure coordinated and holistic support is provided to people affected by ?the covid-19? outbreak as part of (A) Test and Trace, (B) local lockdown policy and (C) as part of the Government's strategy for economic recovery.

MHCLG is in regular contact with local resilience forums (LRFs) across England, with MHCLG attending both tactical and strategic coordinating groups as necessary. Local authorities, as part of the LRF, will consider the needs of vulnerable individuals as they plan their response, and recovery, from the Covid-19 outbreak.

We are working with other Government departments to support local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the Covid-19 outbreak through financial support, engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.

The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of Covid-19. This will allow authorities to step in and provide discretionary financial help to those facing severe hardship due to Covid-19 and help them to pay for food and other necessities.

We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus (Covid-19) can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents

Meetings of the Economic Recovery Working Group, which brings together local growth partners to discuss emerging themes and concerns across the country, have been held at both official and ministerial level. Officials will also be establishing 5 locally led task and finish groups to bring together local partners on specific recovery challenges, to foster strong collaboration between national and local partners and understand how we can support recovery.