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 plans to take to incorporate learning from projects funded by the Community Renewal Fund into the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

To help local areas prepare over 21/22 for the introduction of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, we are providing an additional £220 million through the UK Community Renewal Fund to support our communities across the UK to pilot programmes and new approaches.

As set out in the prospectus, the UK Community Renewal Fund will help inform the design of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through funding of one-year pilots. We want to use the UK Community Renewal Fund to test greater integration of types of interventions and greater flexibility between investment themes than under EU structural funds.

UK community Renewal Fund applications were expected to build on local insight and knowledge, demonstrate how projects complement other national and local provision, and align with long-term strategic plans for local growth, target people most in need and support community renewal. Applicants, if successful, will need to develop an evaluation plan with between 1-2% of their award to be dedicated to that evaluation with a minimum threshold of £10,000.