Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Barran on 11 February (HL Deb, col 2148), which funding streams in their control are available towards the renovation, refurbishment and re-use of empty Victorian mills and similar structures in the Pennine area of the North of England.

Government encourages proposals for mill refurbishments to be brought forward under the £3.6billion Towns Fund, following the successful conversion of Sunny Bank Mill in Leeds referenced in its prospectus. Funding for mill conversions into housing can be sought through the £4.5billion Home Building Fund, which has already provided £20million of development capital for five mill conversions across Bradford, Harrogate and Leeds, delivering 348 new homes. Government’s heritage bodies can also help to unlock the potential of historic mills. The National Lottery Heritage Fund gives grants of up to £5million through its Heritage Enterprise programme, to schemes seeking to achieve economic growth by investing in heritage and returning an historic asset to a viable productive use.

New proposals to unleash the potential of the North and all regions across England will be brought forward in a devolution white paper in the coming months, devolving power and funding to people and places so that every part of the country can shape its own destiny.