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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what progress he has made on delivering levelling up outcomes in (a) the Isle of Wight and (b) other isolated communities.

The UK Government is committed to levelling up areas across the UK to ensure that no community, however isolated, is left behind.

I am delighted that the Isle of Wight Council has recently been awarded £5.8 million from the Levelling Up Fund in round one for East Cowes Marine Hub. Details of other successful bids can be found at www.gov.uk/government/publications/levelling-up-fund-first-round-successful-bidders.

This is not the only way we will level up. The forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper will contain further detail on our policies, including driving further devolution through County Deals, future rounds of the Levelling Up Fund, and The UK Shared Prosperity Fund. That fund, worth over £2.6 billion, is one of the government's flagship programmes for delivering on Levelling Up objectives and will help people access opportunity in places in need, such as ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and rural and coastal communities, and people in disadvantaged groups across the UK.