Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 175 of the Levelling Up the United Kingdom White Paper, how much and what proportion of the £75 million for Net Zero-related R&D, which is to be spent over the next three years, will be spent outside the Greater South East.

The programme of research and development that aims to deliver evidence for our path to being a Net Zero country will be commissioned through open competition. The UK is well served with world leading environmental science research departments, many of which are outside London and the Greater South East. It is not currently possible to state exactly how Defra’s Spending Review commitment to funding £75 million worth of Net Zero work will be split between the Greater South East and other parts of England as the vast majority of these research programmes will be new.