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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how the Shared Prosperity Fund will be allocated across the UK.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers.

Funding for the UKSPF will ramp up so that total domestic UK-wide funding will?at least match receipts from EU structural funds, on average reaching around £1.5 billion per?year. The Government will publish a UK-wide investment framework in 2021 and will confirm its funding profiles at the next Spending Review.

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. This funding will be delivered UK-wide. Further details will be published in the new year.