Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support regeneration in (a) Crawley and (b) other towns adversely affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
This Government is?committed to driving the regeneration of towns across the country as the nation responds to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our immediate response to?Covid-19?builds on an ongoing programme of interventions. This includes the £3.6 billion Towns Fund which aims to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth to towns and high streets. In September 2019, we announced the initial 101 towns, including Crawley, invited to develop Town Deal proposals. We received Crawley’s proposals earlier in the year, and expect to make further announcements of Town Deals in due course. In July, the Prime Minister announced £81.5 million of accelerated funding to the 101 towns to support immediate improvements; Crawley received its £1 million share in September.
Other elements of the Towns Fund include the Future High Streets Fund competition, where announcements of successful bidders will be made in due course, and a further Towns Fund competition. In addition, the High Streets Task Force has also launched a range of online resources to provide support to places across the country: https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/products-and-services/support-for-all-high-streets/