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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much of the Rural England Prosperity Fund has been spent.

Delivery of the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) has been devolved to eligible local authorities. This includes assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. REPF funding is available from April 2023 to March 2025 and all eligible local authorities have confirmed allocations of funding for the two-year period as published.

The latest data we have available for spend is for end of year 1 (March 2024) which showed that £17 million had been paid to projects and in total £71 million had been committed to completed, live or planned projects.

Allocations were weighted 25% year 1 and 75% year 2 for most eligible local authorities to allow development of project pipelines and give time for eligible local authorities to use the full allocations available.