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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the (a) equality of and (b) potential impact on councils in low income areas of the funding formula for local government; and whether she has plans to reform that formula.

This Government is committed to fixing the foundations by reforming and rebuilding local government.

We will work hand-in-hand with councils by moving towards multi-year funding settlements and ending competitive bidding processes.

Over the coming months, we want to hear from local councils about the financial challenges they face and about improvements we can make to ensure the system works in support of local areas, not against them.