Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy to make localised funding available to support businesses to help local economies.

Sustained economic growth is the only route to improving the prosperity of our country and the living standards of working people, and ensuring growth is realised everywhere across the UK is key to the government’s Growth Mission.

The government will therefore work with Mayors and local leaders, giving them to the tools they need to boost their economies and drive local growth, including supporting businesses.

The government will also set out its long-term vision for local growth at the muti-year spending review in the Spring, moving away from the short-termist, competitive approach of the past, to better support local leaders to drive growth in the areas that need it most. The government will also set out more detail on its strategy for regional growth alongside, and integrated with, plans for infrastructure, investment, and the Industrial Strategy.