Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 33 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken explore further initiatives based on the learnings from the funding model adopted by the social sector during the Grenfell response.

The voluntary and community sector was vital to the response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, helping those in need at an extremely distressing time and coordinating resources and funding to support those affected.

MHCLG worked closely with London Funders and other partners to bring organisations together and work at pace across boundaries, in the interests of the emergency response - stepping outside normal processes, contributing over £1.75 million specifically to support charities and community organisations playing an integral role in the response to the fire.

The Government continues to work collaboratively with sector partners to navigate opportunities, as demonstrated by on ongoing work to build socially and economically empowered communities. Our work includes detailed economic assessment of assets in community ownership to get a better understanding of ‘what works’ to support communities; simplified bidding process on the Pocket Parks and the Open Doors programme, and support for the MyCommunity website to sign-post community organisations to a wide range of information and best practice.