Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department plans to extend the funding period for the Rural England Prosperity Fund.

The Government is committed to helping rural businesses prosper. The Rural England Prosperity Fund is a rural top-up to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, providing allocations for eligible local authorities in England to help address the additional needs and challenges facing rural areas.

Overall, the fund will provide up to £110 million in funding to eligible local authorities between April 2023 and March 2025.

To date the fund is providing capital funding to support new and existing rural businesses to develop new products and facilities that will be of wider benefit to the local economy.

This includes small scale investment in micro and small enterprises in rural areas to create leisure and tourism facilities, the capital funding of net zero infrastructures for rural business, and the diversification of farm businesses outside of agriculture to encourage start up, expansion or scale up of these businesses where this involves converting farm buildings into other commercial or business uses.

The Government intends to monitor and evaluate the impact of the fund, with any decision on additional funding a matter for a future Spending Review.