Will the Minister reconsider the decision not to have a funding floor in the local government settlement for 2020/21 with the aim of having more equitable increases?
I will consider the case for a funding floor to be included as part of the final local government settlement alongside any other points that are raised through the formal settlement consultation, which ends on 3 February.
In making my final determination, I will also consider the fact that this is the best settlement local government has seen in 13 years and that, in the absence of a floor, each authority is still set to receive a real terms increase, on a like-for-basis, compared with the current financial year. In fact, the last time any authority received a 3% increase (the smallest increase in the provisional Settlement for 2020-21) in its settlement, on a like-for-like basis, was 10 years ago.