The Government should stick to an agreed single measure of local government spending power when discussing changes to funding, an influential MP has demanded.

Chair of the Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, Clive Betts, has made the call following the repeated refusal of either the Treasury or the Department for Communities and Local Government to set out how a 2.3% real terms spending decrease reduction for local government between 2014/15 and 2015/16 was calculated.

Mr Betts first raised the issue last October, after the prime minister and chancellor iterated a 2.3% cutback figure for local government in relation to the 2013 Spending Round - which set out government expenditure for the single financial year 2015/16.