Oral Answers to Questions

Neil O'Brien Excerpts

Monday 25th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the UK community renewal fund on communities with high levels of deprivation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Neil O'Brien)]

We are committed to ensuring that the community renewal fund reaches those most in need. To achieve that, we identified 100 priority places across Great Britain based on an index of economic resilience measuring productivity, household income, unemployment, skills and population density. Other places were also able to bid and the assessment process considered both the strategic fit and the deliverability of bids.

[Justin Madders]

Could the Minister tell us, when the pilots have concluded, how the shared prosperity and community renewal funds will interact with levelling-up bids? In future, will there be an overlap? Will it be possible to bid for both? On the levelling-up process, will he meet me to discuss Ellesmere Port’s excellent and ambitious levelling-up fund bid?

[Neil O'Brien]

I would be delighted to meet the hon. Gentleman. As he knows, the community renewal fund is intended to act as an innovative source of funding to try new ways of doing things as we move on from EU structural funds, and to enable us to start working on new ideas ahead of the levelling-up fund.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to support towns.