Help for Councils

One in nine councils with social services responsibilities are getting emergency government help to enable them to balance their books.

Ministers have agreed almost £2bn in financial support overall for the 17 local authorities, with by far the biggest share going to Birmingham. The support comes in the form of so-called capitalisation, under which councils can use borrowing or the sale of their assets to fund day-to-day expenditure, something that is usually prohibited.

 Source: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.