Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Levelling Up

Tuesday 28 June 2022 · 3 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 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The levelling-up White Paper outlines a plan to invest over 600 billion in gross public sector investment over the current Parliament.
  • Sarah Atherton's petition for Wrexham's levelling-up gateway bid, supported by 16,000 signatures, highlights the public support for the Government's agenda.
  • Emma Hardy questioned the Budget allocation, noting that more funds were allocated to the Department for Work and Pensions for fraud recovery than to HMRC for fraud prevention.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Sarah Atherton
Economy
Context

The question arises from the need to encourage economic and social development across all regions of the UK, particularly focusing on areas that have been historically underfunded or neglected.

Question

What fiscal steps his Department is taking to encourage levelling up across the UK. I am concerned about ensuring every corner of the United Kingdom sees progress and improvement in their local communities through government investment.

Answer from Simon Clarke

The levelling-up White Paper set out a clear plan to level up every corner of the United Kingdom by 2030. At the spending review last autumn, the Government showed how we would deliver our ambitious plan by delivering over £600 billion in gross public sector investment over this Parliament. That includes £4.8 billion in increased investment in local communities through the levelling-up fund, £1.6 billion for the next generation of the British Business Bank's regional investment fund, and £2.6 billion for the shared prosperity fund.

Answered
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Q2 Sarah Atherton
Wales Local Government
Context

Wrexham's levelling-up gateway bid has been supported by a significant petition showing local support, and it is argued that the area has long been neglected by the Welsh Labour Government.

Question

Wrexham's levelling-up gateway bid has been supported by a 16,000-signature petition to create the first international sporting stadium in north Wales. Does my right hon. Friend agree that people are at the heart of the Government's levelling-up agenda, and that the amount of people who have signed that petition demonstrates the need for such a scheme in places like Wrexham, which has been ignored by the Welsh Labour Government for 20 years?

Answer from Simon Clarke

My hon. Friend is a fantastic champion for Wrexham. I remember her coming to see me to talk about the merits of this particular bid, which obviously has enormous popular support; the number of people who have signed her petition testifies to precisely that.

Not addressed: The specific issue of whether the government will support Wrexham's bid was not addressed directly.

How: Complimenting The Mp, Acknowledging The Popularity

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Q3 Emma Hardy Lab Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice
Taxation Benefits & Welfare
Context

There is a concern over whether resources are being allocated efficiently to recover tax owed, with specific focus on the effectiveness of HMRC versus the Department for Work and Pensions in recovering funds.

Question

Real levelling up requires money, and that means everybody paying all the tax they owe. So why did the spring Budget allocate three times more additional funding to the Department for Work and Pensions than to HMRC to deal with fraud, when we know that every £1 spent on fraud in the DWP recovers £6, but every £1 spent on fraud in HMRC recovers £18? Why are the resources not prioritised to bring the greatest reward?

Answer from Simon Clarke

This is undoubtedly an important issue, and the hon. Lady is right to raise it. Clearly, we are at a very important moment in the fight against fraud. Only next month, the new Public Sector Fraud Authority reporting to this Department and the Cabinet Office will go live, backed up by an additional £25 million over the spending review period. This represents increased resources for further support in terms of active measures on data, intelligence, risk and enforcement—all the things we need to do to crack down on fraud and to pursue the perpetrators.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific allocation of funding between HMRC and DWP was not addressed directly.

How: Acknowledging Importance, Future Plans

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