Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that deprived rural and coastal communities receive a fair allocation of per capita spending on public infrastructure.

The Government’s levelling up agenda aims to spread opportunity and investment across every region and nation of the UK—including in rural and coastal communities. We will deliver this pledge by boosting jobs, wages and prospects for all communities. At Budget the Government also announced policies that will benefit those communities most in need, including the first round of the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund—designed to drive regeneration in places that have received less Government investment in recent years. On top of this, the next £5.2 billion Flood and Coastal Defence programme kickstarts in this month, and we are allocating £1.2bn over four years to support the rollout of gigabit-capable broadband in hard-to-reach areas—the start of our £5bn UK Gigabit programme.