Fifty-five local authorities across Great Britain have been awarded a share of nearly £1bn from the third tranche of the Levelling Up Fund.
Today (20 November), the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) published a list of successful councils who “narrowly missed out on funding in round two but were assessed as high-quality and able to deliver quickly”.
The Levelling Up Fund is worth £4.8bn and is a UK government initiative to invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on communities and will support economic recovery.
According to the DLUHC, the £1bn of funding will “spread opportunity and create jobs”, with £150m allocated to develop better transport links and £825m awarded for town centre regeneration.
In addition, the funding is spread across Great Britain, with the North West receiving £128m, the North East £59m, Yorkshire and the Humber £169m and the Midlands £171m in total.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: “Today we are backing 55 projects across the UK with £1bn to create new jobs and opportunities, power economic growth, and revitalise local areas.
“This funding sits alongside our wider initiatives to spread growth, through devolving more money and power out of Westminster to towns and cities, putting in place bespoke interventions to places that need it most, and our long-term plan for towns.”
The first two rounds of the Levelling Up Fund awarded funding to 216 projects which are currently underway. The allocation of round two was heavily criticised in January by local government leaders for being based on costly competitive bids rather than “evidence” or “deprivation”.
It was also later revealed that ministers had implemented a “rule” during the allocation of round two that prevented councils successful in the first round from receiving money in the second round.
This also comes as a new report by the National Audit Office revealed that inflation, skills shortages and hesitation in government decision-making are causing significant delays in levelling up projects.
Martin Tett, chairman of the Local Government Association’s People and Places Board, said: “It is positive to see that places which had been overlooked in previous rounds have been included on the strength of their previous bids and that culture is given the extra recognition it deserves in strengthening pride-in-place.
“Streamlining the long list of local funding pots, reducing the need for costly funding competitions and allocating funds based on robust evidence have been long-held asks of local government. It is good that these calls have been heard.”
A full list of the authorities awarded funding can be viewed here.
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