Local authority funding

That this House is deeply concerned by the crisis in local government funding and the findings of the Thirty-First Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2024–25 on Local Government Financial Sustainability, published on 18 June 2025, and the estimate that local authority deficits will reach between £2.9bn and £3.9bn per year by 2027–28; regrets that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government cannot guarantee local government funding increases will result in improved outcomes for residents; understands that a reduction in local authority funding directly impacts the provision of social care, SEND and vital local public services; is shocked that neither the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government nor HM Treasury undertook an assessment ahead of increases to national insurance contributions on the impact to local authority budgets; notes that the crisis in local government funding was exacerbated by the previous Government which ultimately failed to fix the social care crisis; recognises the burdens on local government budgets are compounded by the Government’s plans for local government re-organisation; and calls on the Government to publish a proper plan to end the crises in social care and SEND provision which are pushing councils to the brink of collapse and ensure local authorities have the resources they require to provide the vital local public services communities deserve and desperately need.