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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the scale of the loss of income incurred by local authorities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they intend to take to assist local authorities financially.

The department has engaged closely with councils from across the country, and across different tiers, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Allocations of the additional £1.6 billion support for councils to respond to COVID-19 were announced on Tuesday 28 April. This is a significant package of support which responds to the range of pressures councils have told us they are facing, and takes the total amount provided to local councils to over £3.2 billion.