Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Future of news is local, says Culture Secretary, as she launches the first action plan to back local news in a generation, published on 17 March 2026, whether she has assessed the risk that action plan funding could reinforce existing market concentration in the local media sector.

As part of Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan, the Government is launching a Local News Fund worth £6m in 2026/27 and up to a further £6m in 2027/28, to help ensure the long term provision of local news. Local media faces a complex range of challenges, and funding represents just one aspect of our approach. It will help the industry adapt in the short-medium term, before longer term measures set out in the Plan begin to take effect in helping enable a free, plural and thriving online local media ecosystem.

Funding will be distributed to local media outlets in print, online, radio or television, according to the outcomes of a competitive bidding process. Prospective bidders will need to meet specific qualifying criteria, central to which will be that the provision of local news is a primary purpose of the organisation.

Funding decisions will be supported by an independent Steering Board of external industry experts, to ensure a degree of independence in government decisions about funding media outlets. In accordance with the Government’s wider support for freedom and plurality of local media, we will not be linking grant awards to the provision of certain types of coverage or political impartiality.

Further detail on the Fund will be announced in the coming weeks.