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 ensure that refuge services currently in receipt of funding from his Department do not close at the end of the 2017-18 financial year.

Local Authorities are responsible for making local spending decisions. In our Priorities for Domestic Abuse Services, published in 2016, we acknowledged the importance of a strategic approach evidenced by an assessment of local need.

We were clear in the prospectus for our £20 million fund that bids from local authorities should create sustainable and long term approaches to supporting victims to ensure that each project in receipt of funding would be sustainable when the funding ended.

To help meet this challenge, on 7 February we offered projects already funded through the £20 million fund additional support through the allocation of £1.1 million top up funding. We will make the remaining £20 million we secured at Spending Review 2015 available as early as possible in the 2018/19 financial year for domestic abuse services, including refuges.

This new fund will be open to all local areas across England to bid for a share.