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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the financial sustainability of local authorities projecting significant drawdowns from reserves within the next three years.

The government considers reserves to be an important part of the resources available to local authorities.

We encourage local authorities to consider how they can use their reserves to maintain services in the face of pressures, taking account, of course, of the need to maintain appropriate levels of reserves to support their financial sustainability and future investment.

Data from the 2024-5 financial year can be found on gov.uk here.

Further information about an individual local authority's reserves can be found in the financial accounts published by that authority. The government will continue to monitor the level of local authority reserves.