Local government finance, council tax and levelling-up

That this House notes the huge pressures inflicted on local government finance since 2010 as a direct result of Government policy, in particular during the early part of the last decade; notes with concern the unequal distribution of expenditure cuts falling mostly on areas with high levels of deprivation across the North and Midlands; recognises the huge contribution local councils have made supporting residents and communities during the covid-19 pandemic; urges the Government to immediately improve the spending power of councils, ensuring council tax increases are minimal, whilst putting local government finance on a longer-term and more stable footing; calls on the Government to recognise council tax as an out-of-date and regressive form of taxation that penalises less well-off households, beginning a review into its wholesale reform; and asserts that no levelling-up agenda will ultimately be successful without a municipal revival, with better funding alongside increased powers, which restores local government to the pinnacle of achievement.