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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to hold engagement events on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in the next (a) four weeks, (b) three months and (c) six months in (i) Wales, (ii) England, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland.

The Government recognises the importance of providing clarity to local areas on the future of local growth funding now we have left the European Union, and of wide engagement in developing the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which will tackle inequality and deprivation across the United Kingdom.

The Government has been working closely with interested parties across the UK whilst developing the fund, and officials have met with their counterparts in the devolved administrations on multiple occasions to discuss the fund.

In total, Government officials have held 25 engagement events across the UK, attended by over five hundred representatives from a breadth of sectors, which has helped inform progress on policy design.

There is continued regular engagement at official level, and it is expected this will be maintained in the future.