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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when Scottish local authorities will be able to apply for Shared Prosperity Funding for specific projects.

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK. A portion of the UKSPF will target places most in need across the UK, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities.

Places receiving funding will be asked to agree specific outcomes to target within a UK-wide framework. They will then develop investment proposals to be approved by the Government among a representative stakeholder group. A second portion of the Fund will be targeted differently to people most in need through bespoke employment and skills programmes that are tailored to local need.

To help local areas prepare over 2021/22 for the introduction of the UKSPF, we will provide additional UK funding to support our communities to pilot programmes and new approaches.

Further detail on the additional funding will be published soon and we will publish a UK-wide investment framework in Spring 2021 setting our further information on the UKSPF.