Local Government Finance
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 85784 on Local Government Finance, which local authorities have submitted disposal flexibility requests and had them approved since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Alison McGovern
The Flexible Use of Capital Receipts general direction was introduced in 2016 by the previous government and remains substantively unchanged.
As set out in the general direction and guidance, local authorities intending to use the discretionary freedoms must provide the government with details of their planned use of the flexibility. This is to make sure that the government is adequately sighted on the use of the flexibility and can monitor how it is used. Government does not, however, approve the plans or any specific use of the flexibility. Local authorities remain responsible for appropriately complying with the direction and guidance, and ensuring their decisions are in the best interests of local residents.
Government does not publish details of the plans submitted by local authorities, but authorities should, in accordance with the guidance that accompanies the direction, make their strategies publicly available, and use of the flexibility should be reported in the annual statement of accounts.
The table below illustrates the total number of local authorities who submitted their strategies under the direction for the last three financial years:
2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 |
73 | 89 | 60 |
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