To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will (a) make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the Cambridge University Bennett Institute for Public Policy report entitled Townscapes: The North East and (b) reintroduce the position of Minister for the North East to tackle the decline in North East towns referred to in that report.

a) This government is committed to levelling up the regions, so that people can benefit in our shared prosperity. On 6 September we announced the 100 places we have invited to develop proposals for Town Deals as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund announced on 27 July. 45 of these places are in the Northern Powerhouse, 18 of which are in the North East. Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland will also benefit from £600 million of investment in jobs and infrastructure under the North of Tyne Devolution Deal, whilst the Tees Valley Devolution Deal is worth £450 million. Additionally, of the £3.4 billion of Local Growth Funding that has gone to the Northern Powerhouse, £505.6 million has been allocated to the North East and Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnerships.

b) The position of Minister for the Northern Powerhouse was first created in 2015 to drive economic growth in the North and ensure the needs of the North of England are represented in government. I was appointed Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth in June 2017 and I was re-appointed on 25 July 2019 as Minister of State attending Cabinet, showing that the Northern Powerhouse remains at the heart of this government’s agenda.