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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the comments by the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy who said that there was a "heightened risk of more councils over the next four years falling into special financial measures as a result of the unrelenting pressure on budgets".

The Department engages with the sector and collects and analyses qualitative and quantitative information to assess and understand risk both across the local government finance system as a whole and in relation to individual councils. As part of our preparations for Spending Review 2019 we will be engaging extensively with local government and with other Government Departments to fully understand forward financial pressures on the sector.