(Lab):...Our report
highlighted the shared prosperity fund as a key opportunity to help
support coastal business development, particularly in sectors that
are often fundamental to seaside towns, such as tourism and retail,
and to tackle deprivation in those coastal communities. We
recommended that any future plans around the operation and
priorities of the fund must set out a clear indication of how our
deprived communities will benefit. We also recommended that coastal
local authorities must be consulted on how the fund might support
regeneration in their areas. The response indicated that the
Government,
“would welcome the views of coastal communities on how the UK
shared prosperity fund can deliver coastal regeneration,
including responses from local authorities and Coastal Community
Teams”...
(LD):...That brings me to
the shared prosperity fund. Paragraph 29 of the Government’s
reply says:
“Details of the operation and priorities of the UK shared
prosperity fund are due to be announced following the Spending
review which will take place later in the year”.
So far, so good. The problem here is that there are strong
rumours that there will be no spending review this autumn and
that it will be deferred for a further year. If the Minister is
in a position to give us any further update on that, it would be
helpful. The shared prosperity fund is an urgent issue for
councils—and, if they are to administer the fund, local
enterprise partnerships as well—as they need to understand the
level of funding that they will get. I recognise that the
Government have attempted to address some funding issues for
coastal areas through the Coastal Communities Fund, the Coastal
Revival Fund and coastal community teams. All these things help,
but they are not a replacement for mainstream departmental
funding...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local Government and Wales Office (Lord Bourne of
Aberystwyth) (Con):...We have the stronger towns fund, worth £1.6
billion; a prospectus on this should be available before the
recess to show how that is taken forward. We also have
the shared prosperity fund; the noble Lord, Lord
Bassam, asked how coastal communities can be involved in that.
When we take this forward there will be a wide consultation; we
will want people and authorities to consult, and that will
certainly include coastal funds. We have enterprise zones, of
which there was mention early on. I think my noble friend Lord
Smith said there was only one. I hope it was him; if it was not,
I ask him to forgive me. There are in fact currently 15 coastal
enterprise zones. I have the list here. Although I will refer to
them in the course of this debate, rather than go through them
all now I will ensure that the names and coverage of all of them
are in the write-round letter. We are looking at up to another
five as part of the tourism sector deal, which we have just
announced. Reference was made to some of them: Berwick-upon-Tweed
is covered by one of them, while at the other end of the country
Falmouth, which has not been mentioned, is covered by another,
and there are many inbetween...
...The noble Lord, , mentioned the heritage
railways and Whitby; I congratulate him on not being steeped in
blood like everybody else because he was there objecting. He also
talked about chambers of commerce, which I will certainly feed
into the system. I think that they may be involved with some LEPs
anyway, but it is a point worth emphasising. I agree with him on
the importance of the voluntary sector and programmes such as
“Heartbeat” in providing tourism opportunities. Some £1.8 billion
of public money has been put into Digital UK’s superfast
broadband programme; I am sure that the shared prosperity fund will look at this
issue as well...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
