Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to support (a) charities and (b) community groups in accessing the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
When developing investment plans and for delivery, all places work with local partnership groups, which represent local stakeholders from a diverse range of sectors, including the third sector.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding to local authorities for the creation of sight loss registers to provide blind and partially sighted people with information on (a) new voter ID requirements and (b) other election events.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Further to the answers given to Questions UIN 119056 and 121031 on the 16 and 20 January 2023, the Government has also provided £4.75m for communications related to voter identification to local authorities with polls this year.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the oral evidence given to the Select Committee on Levelling Up, Housing and Communities by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Levelling up on 23 January 2023, HC744, Q197, whether the £65 million capability and capacity funding is specific to the Levelling Up Fund.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department is making up to £65 million of support available to successful applicants to the Levelling Up Fund in the form of commercial advisors, grants to buy in local support, and a training package.
Given the value in coordinating this support package alongside the support needs of other capital programmes, this funding can be used to support delivery of the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund projects, along with the core funding for Levelling Up Fund bids.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 150592 on the Levelling Up Fund, where in the referenced transcript is an apology in relation to the Levelling Up Fund as opposed to Investment Zones.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Further to my answer to Question UIN 150592, I apologise to those local authorities that feel frustrated at having been unsuccessful in their levelling up bids or around their work on Investment Zones last autumn. As Hon Members are aware we received over £8 billion of bids for round two of the Levelling Up fund and although we are delighted that there is such widespread enthusiasm and interest in levelling up, inevitably many applicants were disappointed that they were not successful.
However, as set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 19 January, I am pleased to say there will be a third round of the Levelling Up Fund and we will outline more information on this in due course. Furthermore, at the Autumn Statement the Chancellor set out the government's intention to take forward a re-focused Investment Zone programme.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to encourage people with (a) a learning disability and (b) autism to (i) register to vote and (ii) vote in elections.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to Question UIN 147371 on the 27 February 2023.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much of the £3.6 billion allocated to the Towns Fund has been spent.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Spend information for all DLUHC grant funded programmes is published annually. The next publication is scheduled for 30 March 2023.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 2.6 of his Department's guidance entitled Towns Fund: Prospectus published on 1 November 2019, whether there will be a competition for further towns to develop a Town Deal Board, a Town Investment Plan and to agree a Town Deal.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
There are no further Town Deal funds available. Any funding that has not been allocated towards successful recipients of either Town Deals or the Future High Streets Fund competition has been used to support delivery that is closely aligned with the outcomes of the fund – including the Levelling Up Fund and Freeports.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 150593 on Regional Planning and Development: Local Government Finance, what (a) capability and (b) capacity funding his Department has provided local authorities in those funds.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
As we have set out previously, this department has provided capability and capacity funding to local authorities bidding across each of the funds mentioned.
For the Levelling Up Fund, £125,000 in capacity funding was provided to all category 1 Local Authorities in England, and equivalents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to help develop bids across the life of the Levelling Up Fund.
For the Community Renewal Fund, £2 million was provided to the lead authorities of each of the 100 priority places ranging from £20,000 to £100,000 to help them coordinate and appraise bids.
For the UKSPF, £20,000 was provided for each lead local authority and £40,000 for each Mayoral Combined Authority, the Greater London Authority and lead local authorities coordinating regional investment plans in Wales and Scotland. This funding supported initial preparatory work, including developing local investment plans.
For Town Deals, £21.4 million in capacity funding was paid out to lead Local Authorities, and support was also available through the Towns Fund Delivery partner. Places shortlisted for Future High Streets Fund were each awarded up to £150,000 revenue funding (totalling £14.5 million across the programme) to support the development of final business cases.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department provided capability and capacity funding to local authorities bidding to the (a) Levelling Up Fund, (b) Community Renewal Fund, (c) Shared Prosperity Fund, (d) Towns Fund, (e) Town Deals and (f) Future High Streets Fund in the last three years.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
The department has provided capability and capacity funding to local authorities bidding across each of the funds mentioned.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the oral answer from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Levelling Up) to the Question of 20 February 2023 from the hon. Member for Nottingham North, Official Report column 9, where the referenced apology in the select committee transcript is found.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
I refer the Hon. Member to Q259 of the select committee session .