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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support small rural community projects in North West Leicestershire constituency.

• In September 2022, the UK Government launched the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF). The fund provides 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.

• The fund provides capital funding to support new and improved community infrastructure. It will provide essential community services and assets for local people and businesses to benefit the local economy.

• As part of the fund North West Leicestershire has received a total allocation of up to £469,090 between April 2023 and March 2025.

• Local authorities are responsible for the delivery of the REPF – including assessing and approving project applications, processing payments and day-to-day monitoring. As with the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the REPF was designed to enable local decision making to better target the rural priorities of places within England. Places are empowered to identify and build on their own strengths and needs at a local level.

• In addition, funding has been provided through Defra’s Platinum Jubilee Village Halls Fund. The St John the Evangelist Church in Donisthorpe received a £75,000 towards their project which aims to transform the inside of the church into a space which can be shared with the whole community. The improved, warmer, friendlier environment will help the building to become somewhere that the community are happy to enter and feel a belonging to, suitable for a variety of activities, bringing people together to care for one another.

• This is one of 106 community buildings which have received grants from the Fund to date and with the additional £5 million of funding for community buildings announced in The Budget many more communities will be able to bid for grants to help improve their buildings.