To ask the Minister of Finance to detail an update on any preparatory work his Department has undertaken, in anticipation of the closure of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) is delivered and managed directly by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) with no partnership role for the Executive. The SPF is scheduled to conclude on 31 March 2026, with no direct successor scheme confirmed.

While the Local Growth Fund was initially, and as recently as July 2025, mooted by the British Government as a replacement for the SPF, subsequent engagement has clarified that this is no longer the British Government’s view.

In March 2025, in anticipation of an announcement by the British Government at the Spending Review, I secured Executive agreement on an approach to the Local Growth Fund. This position set out high-level priorities for a future Fund, as well as lessons to be learnt in relation to the deficiencies of the SPF. It also recognised the need for urgent progress.

The agreed Executive position was shared with officials and Ministers in Whitehall Departments, including MHCLG and the NIO, in March 2025.

I, and my officials, have been pressing for the SPF to be succeeded by something, that both meets local needs, and avoids the repeated funding cliff-edges that our Community and Voluntary Sector have experienced in recent years. I have raised this repeatedly with successive British Government Ministers and will continue to press for a solution.