Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to ensure the provision of (a) community centres and (b) other public spaces in communities to allow minority and other groups access to premises to carry out civic activities.

The Government recognises the contribution which faith organisations and minority communities make to our civic and cultural life, and we are committed to supporting all our communities to have the power to shape their local area and work together to improve their neighbourhoods.

In initiatives the department has funded, we have sought to support efforts to build friendly, working relationships between people of different faiths to promote tolerance and understanding and to help focus efforts to tackle social problems.

The £150 million Community Ownership Fund demonstrates our determination to ensure that all communities are able to protect the community assets and local facilities which are important to them by bringing them into community ownership.

In round one of the fund, we have provided £983,088 of support to help community groups take ownership of community centres.