Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that memorandum of understanding agreements with councils for this year’s Shared Prosperity Funding are in place; and whether the deadline for spend will be extended.

Officials are working at pace to ensure that memorandum of understanding agreements for delivery of UK Shared Prosperity Funding (UKSPF) in 2025-26 are distributed to lead local authorities as soon as possible and before the start of the next financial year.

UKSPF funding for the 2022-25 period must be incurred on activity that takes place on or before 31 March 2025. There is no flexibility to extend this expenditure deadline. Any UKSPF, Multiply or Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) underspends at the end of 2024-25 must be repaid to MHCLG.