Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 took account of increases in inflation when setting levels of funding available through the Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Yes. Funding will match in real terms what was allocated under ERDF and ESF to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each LEP area in England.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to assess the effectiveness of R&D interventions included in the investment plan submitted to the Government for approval for Shared Prosperity Fund funding.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Lead local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales will be asked to report data to us to ensure that allocations are being spent to agreed timescales and milestones, including achievement of outputs and outcomes at the project level. We will also ask local authorities to report individual project outputs and outcomes at UK Parliament constituency level.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are developing a national approach to evaluation, including a scoping study in partnership with the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth. The national evaluation will evaluate the Fund through two related lenses: Fund-level process evaluation/s to demonstrate accountability and understand what worked well, what did not, and why, in the design and delivery of the Fund. Performance indicators from lead local authorities or project deliverers will contribute to the programme-level process evaluation. In addition, places may be required to cooperate with process evaluation activity undertaken by or on behalf of us.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if the Shared Prosperity Fund's R&D funding be equivalent to the European Regional Development Funding R&D funding in terms of (a) absolute amount, (b) proportion and (c) regional distribution.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Leaving the EU enables the UK to identify UK-specific priorities and create a fund which invests in UK priorities and targets funding where it is needed most. As set out in various Manifesto commitments and at spending review, the UKSPF is not intended as a direct replacement for ESIF funds. The Fund’s policy and delivery structure significantly differs, with a focus to deliver more tangible Pride in Place benefits across the UK.
Places will be empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level. Should they choose to do so, they can fund Research and Development (R&D) related interventions under the ‘supporting local businesses’ pillar of the fund. However, it will be for places to decide how much of their allocation they spend on R&D depending on their locally identified priorities.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 Levelling Up White Paper, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the Shared Prosperity Fund will contribute to increasing R&D public investment outside the Greater South East by 40 percent.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Leaving the EU enables the UK to identify UK-specific priorities and create a fund which invests in UK priorities and targets funding where it is needed most.
The UKSPF improves on these funds by: focusing on UK priorities rather than policies dictated by the EU; Giving local areas a greater say in investment priorities, by giving more direct accountability to elected local leaders.
Places will be empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level. Should they choose to do so, they can fund Research and Development (R&D) related interventions under the ‘supporting local businesses’ pillar of the fund. However, it will be for places to decide how much of their allocation they spend on R&D depending on their locally identified priorities.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how his Department will ensure that the Shared Prosperity Fund will maintain Research and Innovation funding at a level matching funding available through the European Regional Development Fund.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
Leaving the EU enables the UK to identify UK-specific priorities and create a fund which invests in UK priorities and targets funding where it is needed most. As set out in various Manifesto commitments and at spending review, the UKSPF is not intended as a direct replacement for ESIF funds. The Fund’s policy and delivery structure significantly differs, with a focus to deliver more tangible Pride in Place benefits across the UK.
Places will be empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level. Should they choose to do so, they can fund Research and Development (R&D) related interventions under the ‘supporting local businesses’ pillar of the fund. However, it will be for places to decide how much of their allocation they spend on R&D depending on their locally identified priorities.
Beyond UKSPF, the government has recently set out an ambitious mission as part of its levelling up agenda, including that by 2030, domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East will increase by at least 40%, and over the Spending Review period by at least one third. This additional government funding will seek to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much his Department has spent on advertising for the Levelling Up White Paper; and from which budget funding for that purpose is taken from.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Levelling Up campaign has just ended. We will be publishing its expenditure as part of routine transparency commitments in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much money was (a) allocated from the European Regional Development Fund and (b) spent on research and innovation in each region from 2014 to 2020.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The value of European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) in the England ERDF programme is €3,649,257,601. The sterling value of the programme will fluctuate depending on the exchange rate but contracts are made in sterling
The programme has funding ring-fenced for Promoting Research and Innovation. The table sets out the amount contracted in each administrative region and has been paid as of November 2021
Region | ERDF Paid | ERDF Contracted |
GSE | £27,227,049 | £49,756,471 |
London | £13,688,450 | £29,611,874 |
Midlands | £80,981,304 | £147,811,043 |
NEYH | £79,845,708 | £137,263,251 |
NW | £103,279,677 | £173,453,271 |
SW | £72,635,554 | £119,690,598 |
Total | £377,657,741 | £657,586,509 |
The programme rules allow for spending to continue to the end of 2023.