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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent progress has been made under the Future High Streets Fund.

Local authorities have been working on business cases for the Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) for over eight months and we are pleased to see the progress that has been made to date. Additionally, all shortlisted places have now received feedback on their draft business cases to support councils to make clear and evidence-based funding proposals within their final business cases.

You may also wish to note that in response to a significant number of calls from local authorities whose staff have been mobilised to respond to Covid-19, we have granted an extension to the deadline. MHCLG officials were in direct contact with all shortlisted local authorities last month to inform them of this extension to the deadline.