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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to consult on the design of the (a) UK Shared Prosperity Fund and (b) Levelling Up Fund.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK for people and places. To help local areas prepare over 2021-22 for the introduction of the UKSPF, the Government will provide £220 million additional funding to support our communities to pilot programmes and new approaches. Further details will be published in the new year.

Officials have held 26 engagement events on the UKSPF, attended by over five hundred representatives from a breadth of sectors including businesses, public bodies, higher education institutions, voluntary and charity sector and rural partnership groups. We will continue to work with interested parties as we develop the fund.

The Government is also launching a new Levelling Up Fund worth £4 billion for England. This will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery. Projects should be genuine local priorities, prepared in collaboration with local stakeholders that have clear benefits to the local community and are aligned with a broader local economic strategy. The Spending Review makes available up to £600 million in 2021/22. We will publish a prospectus for the Fund and launch the first round of competitions in the new year.