Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding his Department has allocated for regeneration of coalfield communities in each of the last five years.

We do not hold the information requested. However, the Government believes it is the role of local communities themselves to determine investment in regeneration and economic growth, which is why we have empowered them to take decisions over investment in their local economies. We are committed to helping every part of the country share in prosperity, through a place-based approach to growth.

As the three devolution settlements devolved responsibility for economic development, the Government has supported local economic growth and regeneration directly in England. This includes investment in coalfields communities through the Coalfield Regeneration Trust, which supported the Trust to become a self-financing organisation and operate independently of government investment.

Further investment in growth and regeneration has come from the £12 billion Local Growth Fund. This money is designed to support local economies across all of England between 2015 and 2021 through Local Enterprise Partnerships, organisations which have been created to define the economic priorities of their areas and invest funding accordingly. It is our ambition to continue empowering places to use local expertise and set their own priorities to drive economic growth. This is why our modern Industrial Strategy has place at its heart, and will ensure local communities across the country have the tools to recognise and deliver a varied approach to support places that are struggling as well as building on areas of high productivity.

The manifesto set out that that the Government will develop the United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), a domestic programme of investment that will reduce inequalities between communities and increase productivity across the UK. This will continue to provide places with the ability to support local economic growth across the country.