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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of councils using all of their reserves to balance their budgets on their (a) short and (b) medium-term financial sustainability.

The Local Government Finance Settlement makes available £54.1 billion of taxpayer subsidy in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion on 2021/22, including, over £1 billion specifically for councils to meet social care pressures.

Further announcements will be made on the proposed local Government finance settlement in the coming weeks ahead.

We are working closely with the sector, as we always do, to monitor the impact on service delivery and budgets.