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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans the Government has for the Coastal Communities Fund.

Whether there will be another round of the Coastal Communities Fund or the Coastal Revival Fund is a matter for the next Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Government is committed to levelling up all parts of the UK. We published a prospectus at Budget for the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund which will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK. In addition, as announced at Spending Review 2020, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund 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. We will publish a UK-wide investment framework for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund later this year and confirm multiyear funding profiles at the next Spending Review.

The Government is supporting coastal communities to recover from the pandemic. On 20 March we announced a new £56 million Welcome Back Fund to support a safe and successful reopening of our high streets and seaside resorts, giving people the reassurance that they can shop and socialise in a COVID-secure way. This builds on the £50 million Reopening High Streets Safely Fund (RHSSF) announced on 25 May 2020, doubling local authority funding allocations and significantly increasing the scope of eligible activity.