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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to support the regeneration of high streets in (a) Burslem, (b) Tunstall and (c) Kidsgrove.

This Government is committed to driving the regeneration of towns and High Streets across the country and particularly so in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The £3.6 billion Towns Fund aims to deliver long-term economic and productivity growth to towns and high streets. In September 2019, we announced the initial 101 towns Government would work with to agree Town Deals. Kidsgrove is one of the towns invited to submit a Town Investment Plan. This was received at the end of October 2020 and is now being assessed.

The Government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund (LUF) worth £4 billion for England. This new cross-departmental Fund will invest in a broad range of high value local projects, including upgrading town centres and community infrastructure. It will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery.

The Spending Review has made available up to £600 million for the LUF in 2021-22, and further funding will be spread over subsequent years up to 2023-24. We intend to publish a prospectus for the Fund and launch the first round of competitions later this year.

The Spending Review also announced that the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK for people and places. It will support people and communities, creating new opportunities and spurring regeneration and innovation.

Earlier this year we announced the £900 million “Getting Building Fund” to deliver local employment, skills, and infrastructure priorities, £23.7 million of which was allocated to Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Project.

The Government-backed Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone is making a big impact, enabling redundant and long-neglected brownfield sites to be re-developed, including Chatterley Valley East, Highgate / Ravensdale, and Tunstall Arrow, in Tunstall.

We have provided £10 million of Housing Infrastructure Fund Marginal Viability Funding to transform nine long-standing vacant sites in the Burslem and Middleport areas, helping to breathe new life in the town.

In addition, the High Streets Task Force has launched a range of online resources to provide support to places across the country, which can be found here: https://www.highstreetstaskforce.org.uk/products-and-services/support-for-all-high-streets/