Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Community Funding: Scottish Borders

Monday 29 November 2021 · 5 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 3 Not answered 0

Key points

  • UK community renewal fund and shared prosperity fund support projects in the Scottish Borders on employment, skills, and environment.
  • Minister expresses willingness to visit Burnfoot Community Futures Trust in the Borders to discuss shared prosperity fund application.
  • UK Government has provided additional time for community renewal fund projects to address delays and ensure commitments to areas like Cornwall.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 John Lamont Con Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Scotland Local Government
Context

The UK community renewal fund is designed to support communities post-EU. There are concerns about its impact on preparedness for the shared prosperity fund.

Question

What assessment has been made of the potential effect of the community renewal fund on local communities' preparedness for the introduction of the UK shared prosperity fund in the Scottish Borders?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

The UK community renewal fund and its successor, the UK shared prosperity fund, are examples of how we will have more flexibility to support communities now that we have left the EU. The CRF is funding eight projects in the Borders including on employment support, skills development and environmental sustainability. That will help to pilot new approaches and is helping to inform the design of the UK SPF.

Answered
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Q2 John Lamont Con Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Economy Local Government
Context

The community renewal fund has funded several projects in the Scottish Borders. There is a desire for further successful applications from the SPF.

Question

I want to see even more successful bids from the UK shared prosperity fund, so will the Minister come to my constituency to visit the Burnfoot Community Futures trust to discuss how its application might be as strong as possible?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

I would be delighted to have an excuse to get back up to the Borders.

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Q3 Steve Reed Labour (Co-op) Streatham and Croydon North
Economy Brexit Local Government
Context

There are delays reported with community renewal fund projects. Cornwall has received only 1% of lost EU funding so far.

Question

Last week, the Minister for Levelling Up Communities told us that many community renewal fund projects will finish late. That will further delay the UK shared prosperity fund, under which areas such as Cornwall have so far received only 1% of the amount that they lost in European funding, having been promised that they would get all of it back. Will the Minister tell us how the latest CRF delays will affect the roll-out of the UK shared prosperity fund?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

All the successful community renewal fund bids have been given additional time to deliver their good programmes. We have asked them all to be in touch if there is any issue and we stand by our commitments to Cornwall and other places to which we have made commitments to match EU funding.

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Q4 Steve Reed Labour (Co-op) Streatham and Croydon North
Economy Parliamentary Procedure Local Government
Context

There are concerns about delays with various funds such as the towns fund, community renewal fund, future high streets fund.

Question

There is a worrying pattern with this Government of overpromising and underdelivering. We have had the great train robbery and the return of the dementia tax and now they have postponed levelling up. The community renewal fund is plagued by delays. More than £1 billion of towns fund money has not even been allocated yet, and two years after the scheme was announced, it still has not delivered anything. If this is the Minister's idea of levelling up, does he accept that it is just not good enough?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

The hon. Gentleman says that the scheme has not delivered anything. I was in Norwich on Friday opening the first project ever funded by the towns fund. Whether it is the towns fund, the future high streets fund, the community renewal fund, the shared prosperity fund or the levelling-up fund, this Government are determined to put the financial firepower behind communities' ambitions across this entire United Kingdom, so that we can level up and unite this country.

Not addressed: Delays in funding allocation and delivery

How: Changing Subject To Positive Outcomes

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Q5 Patricia Gibson SNP
Economy Brexit Local Government
Context

The IPPR has noted that UK SPF funding is lower than expected EU structural fund contributions.

Question

The Institute for Public Policy Research has pointed out that the UK shared prosperity funding of £1.5 billion from 2025 falls far short of the £11 billion that would have been received from the EU between 2021 and 2027. Will the Minister explain why the UK Government have not delivered on their promise to replace EU structural funds in full?

Answer from Neil O'Brien

The UK Government will match the spending that different places had through the EU. We have had a delighted reaction from many of the places across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have secured funding through the different routes that are now available, and we have all the additional flexibility and a reduction in the bureaucracy of those old EU schemes. The replacement funding not only matches the quantum of the funding that we used to get through the EU, but gets rid of that unnecessary bureaucracy.

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