Spending Round 2019: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Table 2.11: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government settlement includes:

• a 2.7% real terms increase to the department’s resource budget from 2019-20 to 2020-21;¹¹

• £422 million resource funding to help reduce homelessness and rough sleeping, including an additional £54 million in 2020-21. This represents a real terms increase of 13% compared to 2019-20;

• £24 million additional funding for the Building Safety Programme to support the new building safety regime and help prevent a tragedy like Grenfell happening again. This comes on top of £600 million of government funding for the removal of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding in the private and social residential sectors;

• £10 million additional funding for English as a second language provision. This will enable the second wave of the Integration Areas Programme;

• a total of £241 million from the Towns Fund in 2020-21 to support the regeneration of high streets, town centres and local economies;

• continued funding for the Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse;

• continued support to increase home ownership through the Help to Buy equity loan and other housing programmes, including providing Homes England additional funding to deliver more homes where people need them; and

• continued funding for the Troubled Families programme, which is transforming the way public services are delivered to support families with complex needs.

2.11 Local Government

Table 2.12: Local Government

Local Government DEL will increase by £1.1 billion in cash terms on the adjusted baseline.

With this increase in grant, Local Government Core Spending Power is estimated to increase by £2.9 billion in total in 2020-21. Within this:

• the settlement includes an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care;¹²

• the government will consult on a 2% Adult Social Care precept that will enable councils to access a further £0.5 billion, bringing the total increase in funding for social care to £1.5 billion;¹³ and

• Local Government’s business rate baseline funding levels will also increase in line with inflation.

This funding will help local authorities to meet rising demand in social care services and continue to help stabilise the system. These changes will be reflected in the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2020-21. The MHCLG will consult on the detailed methodology in due course.

Outside of the main Local Government settlement, high-needs funding for schools is increasing by more than £700 million in 2020-21, an increase of more than 11% on 2019-20 funding levels. This funding will support children and young people with special educational needs to ensure all receive a high-quality education and reach their potential.

In addition, the Spending Round confirms that local authorities will receive additional resources through a real terms increase in the Public Health Grant and through the NHS contribution to adult social care through the Better Care Fund, which will increase by 3.4% in real terms, in line with the overall NHS long-term settlement.

Combined with the £2.9 billion increase in Core Spending Power, these announcements mean local authorities can benefit from more than £3 1/2 billion of additional resources made available in this Spending Round.