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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen urban communities.

The Government recognises the value and contribution of all of our communities and supporting them runs through all of the Government’s work.

Government has recently announced the £1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund to help places which have not shared in the proceeds of growth and communities left behind by rapid economic change.

As part of ‘Our Plan for the High Street’ we are funding the £675 million Future High Streets Fund to support investment in town centre infrastructure and five ‘Open Doors’ pilots to match local community groups with vacant high street properties. We are also celebrating the good work that communities have done in their high streets and town centres through the Great British High Street Awards, which will return in 2019 in partnership with Visa, and have provided £9.75 million for local authorities to work with community groups to clean up their high streets.

Government has also committed £9.1 billion of the Local Growth Fund to Local Enterprise Partnerships through three rounds of competitive Growth Deals between 2015 and 2021, strengthened local leadership through nine devolution deals and the establishment of eight combined authority mayors; and is negotiating city and growth deals in the devolved administrations, with deals already agreed in Wales for Cardiff and Swansea Bay and £120 million UK Government funding committed to the North Wales Growth Deal.

We are also looking to increase the availability of urban community spaces and on 26 March the Government announced the winners of the £3.75 million fund to create new Pocket Parks and to refurbish existing parks.