To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps the Government have taken to assist local authorities in tackling gender pay gaps among their employees. (188901)

Central Government have recently increased the financial flexibility available to local authorities to meet their equal pay obligations and to speed up progress on delivering equal pay. On 5 February, we announced that the Government would continue to support councils to meet their equal pay obligations through a further equal pay capitalisation round in 2008-09. This builds on the £500 million issued to 46 authorities on 28 September 2007 for the current financial year. These directions were issued much earlier in the financial year than previous capitalisation directions to facilitate better financial planning and to maintain the momentum already achieved.