Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the White Paper on the reorganisation of local government in England will include consideration of writing off, or otherwise covering, existing local government debt so any new authorities could begin debt-free.
The Government has no intention of introducing an alternative proportional electoral system for English local government. The Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper to be published this Autumn will set out the Government’s ambitions for devolution, including detailed plans for devolving powers and for the local institutions to support this, in particular directly elected Mayors.