The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented Through the Local Government Finance Settlement 2026-27 to 2028-29, the government is updating the needs formulas used to calculate local authority funding allocations, following four consultations. Using more up-to-date data will enable a more accurate assessment of relative demand for services. MHCLG has also simplified the approach to the needs assessment, reducing the number of formulas from 15 to 9. Relative Needs Formulas (RNFs) assess how much ‘need’ each local authority has in comparison to others for specific services, reflecting how local characteristics influence demand. One of the nine RNFs is the Home to Schools Transport (HTST) formula which takes account of the distance eligible pupils travel to school. It applies the Upper Tier Foundation Formula Area Cost Adjustment, which considers differences in labour and rental costs, including the labour cost impact of longer journey times. Overall, nine in ten councils will receive funding that broadly matches their assessed need by the end of the multi-year Settlement, up from around a third before government reforms. The Department for Education will appraise the HTST Relative Needs Formula ahead of the next multi-year Local Government Finance Settlement from 2029-30. The department expects to be able to use data from the HTST data collection and section 251 financial data to help it validate how well the formula aligns with need to deliver transport. At that time, it will consider whether the formula could be refined further.