Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria his Department used to identify the 100 towns invited to develop proposals for the £3.6 billion towns fund.
On 6 September the government announced an initial 100 places that will be invited to develop proposals for Town Deals and we will work with local people from these communities to agree investment of up to £25 million in each place.
Places have been chosen on the basis of a robust selection methodology. This took into account various qualitative and quantitative indicators. These include, income deprivation, skills, productivity, EU exit response, economic shocks, investment opportunities and policy alignment. The government will publish further details on how the fund will operate in due course.