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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the inclusion of park areas in (a) the town centre redevelopment in Shrewsbury and (b) other town centre redevelopments.

I want to commend my Hon Friend for securing £18.7 million through Round 2 of the Levelling Up Fund for the redevelopment of Smithfield Riverside in Shrewsbury. This funding will be used to regenerate brownfield land, create new outdoor spaces and connect the area to the River Severn. This will be essential to realising the ambitions of Shrewsbury’s Big Town Plan, aligned to the Government’s Missions to Level Up the UK.

We are committed to an ongoing evaluation of these funds. The Department’s Evaluation Strategy DLUHC evaluation strategy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which was published in November 2022, sets out our commitment to undertake and learn from evaluation activity across all our policy areas.