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 enable communities to take control of underused or vacant spaces of community value as part of levelling up.

Communities are at the heart of levelling up, and in the Levelling Up White Paper we have set out our ambition to make sure communities have the tools to access underused spaces and retain community assets. We will review existing community asset frameworks which allow communities to protect local spaces and the £150 million Community Ownership Fund is helping communities to protect valued local assets at risk of loss.

In addition, we have we committed to exploring new powers for local authorities to require landlords to rent out long-term vacant properties to tenants such as community groups and set our intention to strengthen planning tools to encourage councils to take action on long-term empty properties. Our reforms of the Use Classes Order permit more flexible use of buildings and will enable councils to address vacant spaces.