Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a Town of Culture designation.

Arts, culture and heritage plays a crucial role in making towns attractive places to live, work and visit. This is why DCMS is working closely with MHCLG to support the delivery of the Towns Fund.

In particular, we are supporting the delivery of the £95million High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme with Historic England. The programme will not only revive and regenerate historic high streets and town centres but will support a cultural programme to engage people in the life, culture and history of their places. Historic England will be working in close partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and the Architectural Heritage Fund.

In addition, the £250m Cultural Investment Fund announced in October will benefit many towns through culture-led regeneration.

DCMS will continue to explore other opportunities to support towns, and is engaging with towns in order to better understand their needs.