Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that organisations do not experience a lag in funding between the European Social Fund ending and the Shared Prosperity Fund commencing.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK in places most in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and for people who face labour market barriers. We are working to ensure that there is a seamless transition from current EU structural funds to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The November 2020 Spending Review set out the main strategic elements of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in the Heads of Terms. We will ramp up funding so that total domestic UK-wide funding will at least match EU receipts reaching around £1.5 billion a year. In addition, the UK Government is providing additional funding in 2021/22 through the UK Community Renewal Fund to help local areas prepare for the launch of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.