Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the replacement of the Shared Prosperity Fund with the Local Growth Fund on child poverty.

With the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) ending in 2026, the Government is changing how local growth is funded, as part of a wider approach comprising targeted interventions to drive growth and strengthen communities.

Across these new interventions, Scotland will receive the same annual funding in cash terms over the next three years as it would have received under the UKSPF this year to support economic growth, community cohesion, regeneration and public realm improvements - around £76 million a year and £228 million over the Spending Review period.

As part of this approach MHCLG and the Scotland Office are working together to design and deliver a new Local Growth Fund for Scotland. The programme will fund regional projects which will drive economic growth. That might mean projects like infrastructure investment, business support, or skills development - projects which will make a real difference in terms of skilled jobs and people’s prosperity. We will share the full investment and interventions framework in due course.

Further, the Pride in Place Programme is providing support to Scottish communities, helping build strong, resilient and integrated communities in areas that experience the most entrenched social and economic challenges.

By investing in local areas, reducing child poverty, and bringing down inflation, the Government is focused on delivering material change to people across the country – boosting living standards and improving public services. This sits alongside substantial increases to devolved budgets through the Barnett formula as a result of greater funding for English local authorities, giving devolved governments additional flexibility to target resource spending to their priorities, including tackling child poverty.