Communities secretary James Brokenshire declined to say whether the Shared Prosperity Fund will be of an equal size to the EU structural funding it will replace.
Last week, MPs called on the government to both urgently publish its plans for the new fund, and for it to be at least as big as the equivalent levels of EU funding provided to local government.
In the Commons, Labour local government spokesman Andrew Gwynne challenged the minister to “without any spin or bluster, confirm to the House whether the most deprived communities in England will see a share of the shared prosperity fund that, pound for pound, is less than, equal to or greater than the share of the European structural development fund it replaces?”.
However, Brokenshire would not be drawn, saying: “I look forward to consulting on the UK’s shared prosperity fund in detail.
“Those allocations will be allocated and set out through the spending review.”
