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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the timescale for reviewing the formula that assesses a local authority’s needs against the costs that it incurs in addressing such needs.

By the end of this Parliament, local authorities will fund local services from local taxes, including £26 billion raised from business rates. This is a real opportunity to reshape the role of local government and a major step forward in our plans to boost growth and give local people more control over how their money is spent.

We have announced that we will conduct a review of what the needs assessment formula should be in a world in which all local government spending is funded by local resources not central grant, and use it to determine the transition to 100 per cent business rates retention. We will develop this approach in partnership with local government.