The Government monitors the financial health of local authorities on a regular basis using a wide range of data as well as through extensive direct engagement with councils.

Taking into account new funding announced on 24 January, on top of what was announced at the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement in December, local government in England will see an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £4.5 billion next year, or 7.5% in cash terms, an above-inflation increase, rising from £60.2 billion in 2023-24 to up to £64.7 billion in 2024-25.

Individual councils are responsible for managing their budgets, and any decision to issue a Section 114 notice is made locally. We stand ready to speak to any council that has concerns about its ability to manage its finances or faces pressures it has not planned for.

We are providing over £1 billion to local authorities through the Homelessness Prevention Grant over three years, including a £109 million top-up this year. This funding can be used to offer financial support for people to find a new home or to work with landlords to prevent evictions, or to provide temporary accommodation where needed. In his Autumn Statement the Chancellor announced additional UK-wide funding of £120 million to help councils address Ukraine and homelessness pressures in 2024/25.

The Government is also increasing the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents from April. This will mean 1.6 million low-income households will be around £800 a year better off on average in 2024-25 and will make it more affordable for families on benefits to rent properties in the private rented sector.

The proportion of private rented sector households has remained relatively stable for nearly a decade.

We continue to support households with the cost of living, providing support worth £104 billion over 2022-25, or £3,700 per household on average. From April 2024, we are investing £1.2 billion to restore Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents. Individuals who need further help to make their rent payments may be eligible for a range of financial support through the welfare system.

The Government recognises the cost of living pressures that tenants are facing, and that paying rent is likely to be a tenant’s biggest monthly expense. We are continuing to support households with the high cost of living, providing support worth £104 billion over 2022-25, or £3,700 per household on average.

From April 2024, we will be investing £1.2 billion restoring Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30^th percentile of local market rents. This significant investment will mean 1.6 million low income households will gain, on average, nearly £800 per year in additional help towards their rental costs in 2024/25.

Discretionary Housing Payments are available to help meet a shortfall in housing costs, Cost of Living Payments are available this year to households on mean-tested benefits, those on disability benefits, and pensioners, and the Household Support Fund has been extended to help with the cost of essentials.

Freeports offer significant advantages to SMEs, including reduced taxes, simplified customs, improved infrastructure, and most notably, the fostering of business clustering environments. Plymouth and South Devon Freeport is focussed on developing incubator units at the new innovation centre which will provide an ideal environment to encourage SMEs. With Freeports now operational, they will continue engagement with SME bodies, ensuring they are well-informed and supported to capitalise fully on these collaborative environments and other advantages Freeports offer.

On 20 November we were delighted to announce that Plymouth City Council were provisionally allocated £19,946,417 in Round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund which we hope will accelerate Plymouth's waterfront regeneration.

All local authorities are required to license houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in which five or more people from two or more households share facilities. Through additional licensing, local authorities also have the power to require HMOs to be licensed where three or more unrelated people share facilities.

The Government is determined to crack down on rogue landlords who let out unlicenced HMOs. Through the Housing and Planning Act 2016 we put measures in place that make it easier for local authorities to effectively tackle unlicensed HMOs, introducing civil penalties of up to £30,000 and Rent Repayment Orders for a wide range of offences.

Regardless of whether a property is subject to HMO licensing, local authorities have powers under the Housing Act 2004 to tackle overcrowding. Where a local authority finds serious overcrowding, assessed as a category one hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), they have a duty to take enforcement action.

On 20 November the Government announced that the third round of the Levelling Up Fund will invest £1 billion in 55 projects across the length and breadth of the country. The Golden Valley Cyber Centre is one such bid, receiving up to £20 million of Levelling Up Funding.

For the third and final round of the fund, projects were drawn from the list of robustly assessed bids submitted in round 2. The bid identified significant jobs and investment to the local area, demonstrating commitments to social value and ensuring benefits would be felt across the community. We look forward to working with all round 3 projects, to ensure delivery of these benefits can get underway as quickly as possible.

Government is committed to ending rough sleeping and reducing homelessness and is spending £2 billion over 2022-25 on this, including £1 billion in England via Homelessness Prevention Grant to help local authorities prevent homelessness and provide temporary accommodation. Government is increasing Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of market rents from April and announced a further £120 million to help councils across UK address Ukraine and homelessness pressures in 2024/25.

Over the last three spending reviews, local government has seen real terms increases in Core Spending Power, and an injection of £5.1 billion last year, of which £3.1 billion was provided through central government grant. This year’s Local Government Finance Settlement will increase resources available to councils, on which we will set out more detail later this year. We recognise the challenges some face, and encourage any local authority with specific concerns about its ability to manage its budgets to come forward.

The provision of affordable housing is part of the Government's plan to build more homes and provide aspiring homeowners with a step onto the housing ladder.

Our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes for both rent and to buy right across the country and the Levelling Up White Paper committed to increasing the supply of social rented homes and a large number of the new homes delivered through our Affordable Homes Programme will be for social rent.

We are providing over £1 billion over three years through the Homelessness Prevention Grant, including a £109 million top up this year, to support local authorities to deliver their statutory duties. This funding can be used flexibly – for example, to offer financial support for people to find a new home or to work with landlords to prevent evictions, among other preventative measures, or to provide temporary accommodation where needed.

The current arrangements will continue to apply for tenants served with a section 21 notice. As highlighted in our ‘How to rent’ guide, tenants who have been issued with a section 21 notice should seek advice from advice services and contact their local housing authority.

Local authorities are experienced at supporting households who are threatened with homelessness. Households who are at risk of homelessness due to having been served with a valid section 21 notice can approach their local authority who will provide them with assistance to seek to prevent their homelessness.

The Government is committed to preventing homelessness where possible. We are investing over £1 billion in the Homelessness Prevention Grant (HPG) over three years, including a £109 million top-up to the Homelessness Prevention Grant this year (2023-24), which will support local authorities to help prevent vulnerable households from becoming homeless, including households who have been served a section 21 notice.

Everyone in the private rented sector is entitled to a safe and decent home. Landlords and agents are prohibited from discriminating against those with protected characteristics in the private rented sector under the Equality Act 2010, with exceptions for age, marriage and civil partnerships. The Equality Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination alongside harassment and victimisation.

As set out in the King’s Speech on 7 November, the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill will grant freehold homeowners on private and mixed tenure estates the same rights of redress as leaseholders – by extending equivalent rights to transparency over their estate charges, access to support via redress schemes, and to challenge the charges they pay by taking a case to a Tribunal, just like existing leaseholders. We will introduce the Bill as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

Like other countries the UK faces global economic challenges that contribute to inflation and weigh on growth. High inflation is bad for growth, so sticking to our plan to halve inflation, on the path back to the 2% target, is the right priority to tackle inflation and help the economy grow. The Spring Budget set out an ambitious package of measures to drive economic growth without irresponsibly fueling inflation, and revisions to ONS data show that we recovered from the pandemic far quicker than first thought, growing faster than Germany and France over this period.

Responding to compounding shocks has meant that borrowing and debt levels are high by historical standards. In its March forecast, the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the OBR, forecast spending on debt interest will reach £94.0 billion in 2023-24.

The government is committed to getting debt falling – reducing debt will reduce spending on debt interest that could otherwise be spent on public services, while providing the foundations for sustainable growth.

In its March forecast, the OBR confirmed that the Government is on track to deliver this, with underlying debt falling as a percentage of GDP in 2027-28, and borrowing falling year-on-year across the whole five year forecast.

The Mortgage Guarantee Scheme (launched in April 2021) continues to support homebuyers and movers with deposits as small as 5%. As of March 2023, the scheme has helped over 37,376 households to buy their homes, 86% of which have been first-time buyers.

The Government remains committed to supporting first-time buyers in making home ownership a reality for as many households as possible.

The pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, we recognise this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers.

On Friday 23 June the Chancellor met with the UK’s largest mortgage lenders, UK Finance and the Financial Conduct Authority to discuss how lenders will provide support for those who encounter problems keeping up with their mortgage payments. At this meeting, lenders agreed to a new Mortgage Charter to support borrowers struggling with their mortgage payments that was published on 26 June. The Charter sets out the standards signatory lenders will adopt when helping their customers, including new flexibilities to help customers manage their mortgage payments over a short period.

The Charter is in addition to the significant safeguards already in place for consumers in the mortgage market. Financial Conduct Authority rules require lenders to engage individually with their customers who are struggling or who are worried about their payments in order to provide tailored support. The Government has also taken measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans, protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, and the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS).

Importantly, the Government also remains committed to providing a fair deal for renters and landlords. The Renters (Reform) Bill currently making its way through Parliament will deliver the government’s commitment to ‘a better deal for renters’ – improving the system for responsible tenants and good faith landlords. Furthermore, we remain committed to improving the supply of affordable housing, and the £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme will deliver thousands of affordable homes to both rent and buy right across the country.

Recognising that this is a concerning time for mortgage borrowers, the Chancellor worked with mortgage lenders, UK Finance and the Financial Conduct Authority to agree a new Mortgage Charter to support borrowers struggling with mortgage payments. The Charter sets out the standards signatory lenders will adopt when helping their customers, including new flexibilities to help customers manage their mortgage payments over a short period. The Government has also taken measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession.

House prices are fundamentally driven by the balance of supply and demand in the market for housing.

At the Autumn Statement 2022, the Government announced a freeze to the business rates multiplier for 2023-24, a tax cut worth £9.3 billion over the next five years. This was the third consecutive year the multiplier has been frozen, protecting businesses from inflationary pressures at an overall cost of £14.5 billion.

Business rates are an essential form of funding for local government to provide vital public services.

The Government keeps all taxes under review.

At the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced a package of measures to increase the labour supply, incentivize business investment and improve productivity. The Chancellor has a plan to drive economic growth and boost competitiveness, centred on the 4Es of enterprise, education, employment and everywhere. UK businesses enjoy the lowest tax burden in the G7 and the most generous capital allowances regimes in the OECD. As a result, the World Bank ranks the UK as the best place to do business amongst large European nations and second in the G7.

The Government remains committed to tackling risks and vulnerabilities and published its Resilience Framework in December 2022.

The Government has introduced a number of measures to financially support businesses. These include:

• the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) provides all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users with a discount on high energy bills for 12 months from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.
• At Autumn Statement we announced a Business Rates package worth £13.6bn over the next five years to support high streets and protect businesses from large bill increases.
• the Recovery Loan Scheme has been extended until June 2024, providing businesses with up to £2 million of government guaranteed finance.
• Increasing the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000, which means that businesses and charities who had employer NICs bills of £100,000 or less in the previous tax year will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer NICs bills.

Monetary policy is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. The Bank of England has the Government’s full support as they take action to return inflation to the target of 2% inflation in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).