Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) capacity and (b) access to capital funding on the ability of local authorities, including in economically disadvantaged areas, to manage infrastructure projects awarded through the Levelling Up Fund.

The competitive Levelling Up Fund (LUF) assessment takes account of how secure the overall funding package is for a LUF bid and the local capacity in place to manage delivery. To support applicants, develop strong bids all category 1 local authorities in England (as measured by the Index of Priority Places) and all local authorities across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland received £125,000 of capacity funding.

The department also closely monitors the delivery of successful projects. We do this through reporting which provides us with an understanding of any delivery or capacity issues that we may need to support places with.