Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans he has to allocate matched funding to projects currently supported by the European Social Fund in Northern Ireland during the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government is currently engaging with the Northern Ireland Executive at an official level regarding the concerns raised by some Northern Ireland stakeholders around programmes currently running under the European Social Fund.
UK-wide funding for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will ramp up to at least match receipts from EU structural funds in Northern Ireland. which on average reached around £1.5 billion per year. Spending Review 2021 fulfils this commitment, with the announcement of over £2.6 billion for the UKSPF over the next three years.
The Government will publish further details on the fund in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will set out any differences in assessment criteria for bids to the different Levelling Up funds in Northern Ireland compared to elsewhere in the UK.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
At Autumn Budget 2021, the Government awarded nearly £50 million in funding to Northern Ireland as part of the first round of the Levelling Up Fund and a further £300k in funding from the Community Ownership Fund
The following week we announced 31 successful Community Renewal Fund projects in Northern Ireland, totalling nearly £12.4 million.
Community Ownership Fund assessment criteria was the same in every country of the UK. The assessment criteria for Levelling Up Fund and Community Renewal Fund, including the different criteria used in Northern Ireland, are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to manage the period between the European Social Fund-funded projects in Northern Ireland and the commencement of Shared Prosperity Fund-supported projects to help ensure that there are no gaps in funding and to reduce potential risk of redundancies for jobs dependent on that funding.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
At Spending Review 2021, the Government announced over £2.6 billion for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
We are ensuring that domestic UK-wide funding will at least match EU receipts, reaching around £1.5 billion a year in 2024-25 when EU funding ceases, while also providing for a smooth transition onto the new, domestic regime.
The Government will publish further details on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what structures or processes are in place to ensure that the application of the Shared Prosperity Fund in Northern Ireland is aligned to policies of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The UK Government will continue to engage the devolved administrations and local partners as we develop the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. We have committed that the devolved administrations will be represented on the governance structures for the Fund. The Government will publish further details on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his timetable is for opening applications to the Shared Prosperity Fund in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
At Spending Review 2021, the Government announced over £2.6 billion for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, with funding ramping up to £1.5 billion in 2024/25.
The Government recognises the importance of reassuring local areas on the future of local growth funding and of providing clarity on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The Government will publish further details on the fund in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what percentage of all levelling up funding awarded to date has been awarded to projects in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government has introduced a number of new funding programmes to level up the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland. To date, this has seen 2.9% of the Levelling Up Fund awarded from the first round to projects in Northern Ireland, equating to almost £50 million.
In the first round of the UK Community Ownership Fund, 5.6% of the funding was awarded; and through the UK Community Renewal Fund 6% of the funding will go to benefit communities across Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether an EU citizen fleeing domestic abuse who misses the EU Settlement Scheme 30 June 2021 deadline and subsequently makes a late application will be eligible for (a) local authority homelessness assistance and (b) a place in a women’s refuge, while she waits for a decision on her EUSS application.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Guidance on eligibility for homelessness assistance in England can be found in chapter 7 of the statutory Homelessness Code of Guidance. This is available at www.gov.uk/guidance/homelessness-code-of-guidance-for-local-authorities
Individual refuges will make their own decision on whether to accept an EEA citizen who has missed the deadline for the EUSS
The Government has been clear we will take a flexible and pragmatic approach where a person has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline for making an application to the EUSS. The Home Office is putting in place measures to expedite the processing of late applications from vulnerable people, (including victims of domestic abuse) using existing processes with charities, their network of grant funded organisations, local authorities and others to identify and expedite such cases.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 30 March 2021 to Question 174332 on UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Northern Ireland, if he will publish a list of the community and voluntary groups that the Department has engaged with on the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers.
Officials have held 25 engagement events across the UK, attended by over five hundred representatives from a breadth of sectors including businesses, public bodies, higher education institutions, voluntary and charity sector and rural partnership groups including many in Northern Ireland. Government officials have been working closely with interested parties and will continue to do so as we develop the fund.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether organisations based in the Republic of Ireland will be permitted to partner with organisations in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) elsewhere in the UK to access funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers. We will publish further details on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in a UK-wide Investment Framework later in 2021.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the branding of UK Shared Prosperity Fund expenditure in Northern Ireland is sensitive to the particular circumstances of the region.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK for places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers. The UK Government has a responsibility to support the economic health of people, businesses and communities across the whole of our United Kingdom. The UK Government is committed to ensuring the fund is delivered in a way that works for the whole of the UK.