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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department are taking to address the deteriorating condition and poor maintenance of national heritage buildings in and around Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove.

This government recognises the impact that the deterioration of heritage buildings can have on local communities, including those in Stoke-on-Trent. I am aware the Minister for Heritage, Baroness Twycross will be meeting with you in the coming weeks to discuss Stoke-on-Trent’s heritage in more detail.

The recently announced £1.5 billion funding allocation for the Arts Everywhere Package includes nearly £200 million new spend, across multiple years, for protecting and preserving heritage buildings across the country and giving funding certainty to the end of the parliament, including £60 million for at risk heritage which provides grants towards repairs and conservation of historic buildings and £42 million for the Heritage Revival Fund, which helps communities to take control of and look after local heritage and bring buildings back into public use.

Funding is administered through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Arms-Length Bodies. Since 2006, Historic England has invested more than £7 million in 36 projects in the Stoke-on-Trent area and actively engages with Stoke-on-Trent with advice to support the local authority and heritage owners.

Similarly, since 1994, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded more than £11m to 53 projects in the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North, and more than £34m in 161 projects in Stoke-on-Trent as a whole. This includes the September 2024 grant of £249,954 in support of Re-Form Heritage, an organisation that transforms historic buildings at risk for the benefit of the local and wider community. Focused on organisational resilience, this award builds on past Lottery investment, which has supported the organisation to redevelop the Grade II* listed Middleport Pottery and the neighbouring Harper Street, which was once home to pottery workers.