Mark Hendrick

The next phase of Places for Growth will move thousands more roles out of London to bring the Civil Service closer to the communities it serves. Preston will continue to have a thriving Civil Service community as part of the North West Digital and Cyber Security corridor. Government departments can also continue to build on the existing Civil Service presence there if it aligns with their business needs.

The Government is making is easier for households to install heat pumps. This includes increasing the budget for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and amending Permitted Development Rights in England to give households greater flexibility to install a heat pump.

Our schemes such as the Warm Homes: Local Grant, Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and Energy Company Obligation provide support for energy efficiency measures and low carbon technologies like heat pumps.

The Warm Homes Plan (WHP) will focus on ensuring homes are more comfortable to live in and cheaper to heat. In many cases, that will mean improvements to the fabric of the building in order to maximise the bill savings and thermal comfort, alongside switching to low carbon heat. Further detail on the WHP will be announced by October.

Local authorities hold the statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Finance Settlement in line with local need.

This Spending Review provides over £5 billion of new grant funding over the next three years for local services that communities rely on. This includes £3.4 billion of new grant funding which will be delivered through the Local Government Finance Settlement within financial years 2026-27 to 2028-29.

Typically, DCMS does not directly fund local authorities, nor their arts and cultural organisations, which are commonly funded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Arts Council England.

In last month’s spending review, the government committed to providing an additional £3.4 billion of grant funding to local government in 2028‑29 compared to 2024‑25. This equates to an average annual real terms increase in overall local authority core spending power of 3.1% across the spending review period.

Whilst individual decisions on how to invest departmental resources will be determined in due course, there will be significant investment into Arts and Culture over the spending review period, including to Arts Council England (ACE) which will continue to support local arts programmes and projects across the country.

In the 2024-25 financial year, ACE provided over £450k of funding to arts projects in Preston, and almost £6.5 million to arts organisations and projects across Lancashire. Details of this funding can be found on the ACE website here https://culture.localinsight.org/#/map

This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets, supporting parents in decisive action to improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.

Providing over half a million children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds with a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day will also lead to higher attainment, improved behaviour and better outcomes, meaning children get the best possible education and chance to succeed in work and life.

For 2024/25, the department’s data on FSM can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. To find the total number of pupils in the Preston constituency, see the ‘School level underlying data 2025 (csv, 22 Mb)’ under ‘additional supporting files’.

For 2025/26, the department has published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority. This can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.

The department publishes data on free school meals (FSM) in the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication. The total number of pupils eligible for FSM in the Lancashire local authority and North West region can be seen the following table: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/597f72a3-5fc8-4b48-c6a0-08ddaa184212.

To find FSM data for Preston constituency, refer to the file titled ‘School level underlying data 2025 (CSV, 22 MB)’ under the ‘Additional supporting files’ section.

​​Work is progressing on finalising the short lists of projects to participate in this first year of the Great British Energy Solar Partnership programme. We hope to have finalised the selection before the summer break with installs to complete in 2025/26. ​

​In the interim, we are providing support for all schools and colleges to start on their journey towards net zero via our new online sustainability support for education platform and our climate ambassador programme. More information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sustainability-leadership-and-climate-action-plans-in-education.

Where schools are considering the purchase of solar panels or other sustainable systems, our ‘Get help for buying’ service provides support to ensure that schemes procured are of high quality and value to the sector. More information can be found here: https://gethelpbuyingforschools.campaign.gov.uk/.

​Details of other government funding available to public bodies for sustainability can also be found at this website, prepared by the Crown Commercial Service: https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/social-value/carbon-net-zero/funding-and-grants.

The department knows that many children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) struggle to find a suitable school placement that is close to their home and meets their needs.

We want more children and young people to receive the support they need to thrive in their local mainstream school, reducing the need for pupils to travel a long way to access a specialist placement. Many mainstream settings are already committed to delivering specialist provision locally, including through resourced provision and special educational needs units. We also recognise the vital role that special schools play in catering to children and young people with the most complex needs.

The department has published allocations for £740 million high needs capital in 2025/26 to support children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision. Local authorities can use this funding to adapt classrooms to be more accessible for children with SEND, create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit pupils’ needs, alongside continuing to provide places to support pupils in special schools with the most complex needs.

The government has agreed to work towards association to the Erasmus+ programme on much better financial terms for the UK. We will ensure that any agreement reflects a fair balance between the UK financial contribution and the number of UK participants who receive funding from it.

Participation in Erasmus+ on acceptable terms for both sides would be of mutual benefit, providing opportunities for collaboration and cultural exchange across education, youth and sport.

We are providing farmers and land managers with the support needed to help restore nature, which is vital to safeguard our long-term food security and build resilience to climate change. There are currently record numbers of farmers taking part in farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive. As of April 2025, these schemes supported 885,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides; 330,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably; and 85,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored.

In the recent spending review, we allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament, the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history.

This means:

• Funding for the Environmental Land Management Schemes paid to farmers will increase by 150% from £800 million in 2023/24 to £2 billion by 2028/29.

• Overall farmers and land managers will benefit from an average of £2.3 billion a year through the Farming and Countryside Programme.

• And up to £400 million from additional nature schemes, including those for tree planting and peatland restoration.

We are investing up to £400 million each year for nature schemes. Defra recently conducted and published a review into how ancient woodland and ancient and veteran trees are protected by the National Planning Policy Framework. This revealed that the policy is not being consistently implemented and in collaboration with MHCLG, we are looking at how this can be improved. We continue to update the Ancient Woodland Inventory. It was most recently updated on 2 June 2025 and has recorded over 52,000 ancient woodland sites in England.

Natural England (NE) updated the Ancient Woodland Inventory for Lancashire, published earlier this year. This ensures all mapped areas are now protected from negative development impacts under the National Planning Policy Framework. NE has been supporting the responsible authority in Lancashire to prioritise ancient woodlands in the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, including a key measure for the restoration, protection, and expansion of ancient woodlands.

Working proactively with ‘Our Future Coast’ project, NE is supporting natural coastal protection for communities. It is working in partnership with coastal groups to raise awareness of more natural solutions, whilst providing pre-consultation and statutory advice on flood schemes and development along the coast to protect the unique natural environment and birds.

NE is supporting wetter farming in Lancashire through an EU funded partnership research project called Pallus Demos. It is also working with Rivers Trusts and United Utilities to create more wetlands and reedbeds in the area through Natural Flood Management. Farming schemes are an essential tool and the Brock and Calder Landscape Recovery Project will provide landscape scale improvements in the Wyre Catchment. NE continues to provide statutory advice to protect existing protected habitats, and species.

Defra recently announced grant funding of £13.6 million in 2025/26 to increase the capacity and capability of 12 charities to redistribute surplus food from farms into charitable networks. Applications were open to not-for-profit organisations redistributing surplus food including local charities and community organisations.

The longevity of the projects formed part of the selection criteria for funding, so we expect the funding to support the redistribution of farm surplus for many years to come.

Safety is National Highways’ top priority and it regularly reviews the safety performance of routes in the North West region. National Highways will be undertaking a route safety study for the M6 this financial year, which it expects to complete by March 2026.

The information requested on killed and seriously injured rates is not readily available as National Highways does not routinely undertake this analysis at specific junctions.

In February, we announced almost £300 million funding for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26. Lancashire County Council has been awarded over £1.4 million in capital funding for 24/25 and over £4.5 million in revenue funding for 24/25 and capital funding for 25/26.

Officers in Active Travel England are working with colleagues in Lancashire County Council to support the delivery of active travel schemes and to signpost guidance and best practice on safety and accessibility. We look forward to working with the new county combined authority as it takes over strategic highways responsibilities into 2026.

The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age. The ENCTS costs around £700 million annually and any changes to the statutory obligations would therefore need to be carefully considered for its impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability.

However, local authorities in England do have the power to offer concessions in addition to their statutory obligations, for example, by extending the times passes can be used or offering companion passes for those travelling with someone eligible for the ENCTS. The decision on whether to offer discretionary concessions is for the local authority to make depending on their needs and circumstances.

The Government has confirmed £955 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London. This includes £243 million for bus operators and £712 million allocated to local authorities across the country. Lancashire County Council has been allocated £27.1 million of this funding. Funding allocated to local authorities to improve services for passengers can be used in whichever way they wish. This could include extending the discretionary concessions available.

The Government recently conducted a review of the ENCTS, which included considering travel times for disabled passholders and is currently considering next steps.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV). As of 1 June 2025, the Government and industry have supported the installation of 80,552 publicly available charging devices, up 29% on this time last year.

Lancashire County Council, which includes Preston, was allocated over £10.8 million capital and resource funding through the Government’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to leverage additional private investment and increase the number of local public chargepoints across the area. More broadly, the North West Region has been allocated almost £56.6m capital and resource funding through the LEVI Fund. In total, the £381m LEVI Fund will support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across England.

The North-West of England will benefit significantly from increased government investment to improve local public transport. Some larger city regions in the North-West will receive long-term funding through the Transport for City Regions (TCR) programme, with a total of over £4 billion allocated for the period 2027/28 to 2031/32. This funding will help local leaders deliver better bus, rail, cycling and walking networks with greater certainty and flexibility. For areas in the North-West not receiving TCR settlements, the Local Transport Grant (LTG) will provide over £413 million from 2026/27 to 2029/30 in simplified, consolidated funding to support improvements in local priorities such as zero-emission buses, public transport upgrades, and safer, more accessible streets. Together, these investments will make everyday journeys quicker, greener, and more reliable across the region.

The Lancashire Combined County Authority is set to receive a £215 million capital allocation through the Local Transport Grant. As a major town within this area, Preston will benefit from the funding through improvements to local transport infrastructure.

At the 2025 Spending Review, the Government also announced a major long-term investment in bus services, committing around £900 million of resource funding each year to maintain and improve services and to extend the £3 fare cap until March 2027. Including capital investment, this represents over £1 billion a year in total support for the bus sector. Individual allocations for the North-West have not yet been confirmed, as the Department for Transport is still carrying out internal business planning. However, this guaranteed funding will support and improve bus services for passengers across the region, helping to grow the economy, boost household incomes and improve access to opportunity.