Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 12 July 2021 to Question 27216 on Levelling Up Fund, how many applications were received from (a) Scotland, (b) Wales, (c) England and (d) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Luke Hall
The first round of the Levelling Up Fund received significant interest from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland bidding authorities across the three investment priorities of the Fund. Bids are currently being assessed in line with the published assessment process. Outcomes from the first round of bids for the Levelling Up Fund will be announced later in the year and bidding authorities will be informed in due course.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the (a) Levelling Up Fund and (b) UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall
Both the Levelling Up Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund are core parts of our Levelling Up agenda and I regularly speak to my ministerial colleagues about both funds. These discussions will inform our Levelling Up white paper, and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund Investment Framework, which we plan to publish later this year.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2021 to Question 21267 on Levelling Up Fund, how much funding he plans to allocate through the first round, for which applications closed on 18 June 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Levelling Up Fund is a competitive fund, with funding distributed to places across the UK on the basis of successful project selection. The Fund will set aside at least £800 million across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over four years from 2021-2022 to 2024-2025.
For the first round of funding, at least 9% of total UK allocations will be in Scotland, 5% in Wales, and 3% in Norther Ireland.
It is expected that investment decisions will be made by the UK Government for the first round of funding by autumn 2021.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2021 to Question 21267 on Levelling Up Fund, how many applications were received for the first round of funding by the deadline of 12 noon on 18 June 2021.
Answered by Luke Hall
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
Applications for the first round of the Levelling Up Fund closed at midday on 18 June. We have received in the region of 300 applications, but these are currently being triaged to ensure compliance with our eligibility requirements, and will then be assessed in line with the published assessment process set out in the Levelling Up Fund Prospectus and Technical Note on Gov.uk.
Outcomes from the first round of bids for the Levelling Up Fund will be announced later in the year and bidding authorities will be informed in due course.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding the Government has allocated to replace EU funding streams for (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Luke Hall
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers.
Spending Review 2020 set out the main strategic elements of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in the Heads of Terms. We will ramp up funding so that total domestic UK-wide funding will at least match EU receipts, on average reaching around £1.5 billion a year. In addition, the UK Government is providing an additional £220 million funding in 2021/22 through the UK Community Renewal Fund to help local areas prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The Government will publish a UK-wide investment framework later this year and confirm its funding profile at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated to the Levelling Up Fund; what the closing dates are for each future funding round; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Luke Hall
The £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centres and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets.
Applications for the first round of the Levelling Up Fund were due at 12 noon on Friday 18 June 2021.
Further detail on how the Fund will operate from 2022-23 onwards will be set out later this year.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when guidance for applications to the Community Ownership Funding Stream will be published; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The £150 million Community Ownership Fund will help ensure that communities across the UK can support and continue benefiting from the local facilities, community assets and amenities most important to them
The fund will be delivered directly by MHCLG in communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A key aim of the programme is to drive greater community ownership of assets that advance the social wellbeing and interests of communities by bringing sporting, cultural, historical, recreational, or environmental benefits.
From Summer 2021, voluntary and community organisations from all parts of the UK will be eligible to apply for funding to help takeover community assets at risk of loss without community intervention
Voluntary and community organisations will be able to bid for up to £250k matched-funding to help them buy or take over a physical community asset at risk. Community groups seeking to acquire a sports asset will be able to claim up to £1 million match funding.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will list the local authorities that have been awarded £125,000 of capacity funding for future Levelling Up Fund bids.
Answered by Luke Hall
The Levelling Up Fund will invest in local infrastructure that will have a visible impact on people and their communities.
For the first round of funding, capacity funding of £125,000 will be provided to the 93 local authorities in England that fall into category 1 on the index of priority places published alongside the prospectus; and all local authorities in Scotland and Wales to help build their relationship with UK Government for the purpose of the Fund.