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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the briefing paper by the Centre for Public Scrutiny and Localis Decline and fall: understanding how and why local government fails, what leads to central Government intervention, and what comes after, published on 10 December.

We have read the interim report by the Centre for Public Scrutiny and Localis, and welcome the approach that they have outlined in their paper. We note that the Centre for Public Scrutiny and Localis are planning further research in 2019, and look forward to reading their final report.