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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of using Community Needs Index data in selecting the areas that receive funding under the Pride in Place programme on rural areas.

Through the Government's Pride in Place Programme, up to £5.8 billion is being invested over ten years in 284 neighbourhoods experiencing the highest levels of need.

Neighbourhoods across England, Scotland and Wales were selected using methodologies which combine measures of deprivation and community need. In England, this includes the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and the Community Needs Index (CNI), which together provide a broader picture of local need. Our allocation methodology targets need everywhere, regardless of type of community, and includes a number of rural communities. By targeting census geographies (MSOAs) and capping the number of areas targeted per parliamentary constituency, this methodology has also ensured that funding is geographically spread to a variety of different communities.

The IMD is the Government's established measure of relative deprivation and captures a range of factors including income, employment, education, health, crime, housing and the living environment. The methodology underpinning the IMD has been developed to identify concentrations of deprivation wherever they occur, including in rural, urban and mixed communities.

The CNI provides a complementary measure of community need by assessing factors such as civic and community assets, connectivity and levels of community engagement. It therefore captures aspects of need which are not reflected in deprivation measures alone. These factors can affect communities in rural, urban and mixed areas, and therefore provide a complementary perspective to deprivation measures such as the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The Government's methodology combines multiple measures of need rather than relying on a single indicator.

The full list of areas and place selection methodology is set out here.