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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support the (a) public and (b) private sector to renovate derelict buildings into community hubs.

In July, my department launched a 4-year UK-wide £150 million Community Ownership Fund to support voluntary and community organisations to bring buildings such as community hubs at risk of loss into community ownership. The fund enables groups to bid for up to £250,000 of match funding. These buildings can be publicly or privately owned, and funding can be used to support renovation as part of an asset purchase. The second round of the Community Ownership Fund will be launched in December and third round in May 2021.