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 ensure that local authorities receive adequate funding to provide public services in a safe manner during the covid-19 outbreak.

Local authorities in England have been provided with over £13 million since the start of the pandemic to tackle the impacts of COVID-19. Of this, over £6 billion is unringfenced in recognition that local authorities are best placed to decide how to meet the major COVID-19 pressures in their local area. We continue to closely monitor the sector's finances as we have done throughout the pandemic.