More than 100 projects across the UK will be awarded a total of £2.1 billion from the Levelling Up Fund, the government said on Wednesday.
The winners of the second round of funding, from 111 areas across the UK’s four nations, include the Eden Project North visitor attraction in Morecambe, a new artificial intelligence campus in Blackpool, a new rail link in Cornwall, and a major regeneration scheme in Gateshead that will create jobs and grow the economy, the government said.
Around a third of the funding—£672 million—will be used to develop transport links, £821 million will be allocated to community regeneration projects, and £592 million will be used to restore local heritage sites.
Around £1.6 billion will go to 80 local councils in England while £158 million will go to 10 Scottish councils, £208 million will go to 11 Welsh councils, and £71 million will go to 10 councils in Northern Ireland.
Having previously vowed to match the funding awarded in the first round of the Levelling Up Fund, which was £1.7 billion to 105 projects, the government said it decided to increase the funding “after receiving a high number of transformative bids.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “By reaching even more parts of the country than before, we will build a future of optimism and pride in people’s lives and the places they call home.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt called the investment a “major down payment on local jobs, growth, and regeneration” that are part of the government’s “mission to level up opportunity across the country.”
But Conservative MPs whose constituencies lost out in the bid were disappointed, while Labour labelled the bidding process a “'Hunger Games’-style contest.”
Siobhan Baillie, Conservative MP for Stroud, said Stroud District Council “worked really hard” on its bid and she wanted to ensure that people from the council could have meetings “to improve our application.”
Robbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley, said it’s “incredibly disappointing” that Keighley had lost the bid.
“After discussions with the department, I understand that Bradford council’s application for the funds was not detailed enough to meet the standard for a successful bid,” he said, asking for civil servants to write to the council “urgently” to explain how it could significantly enhance the quality of their bids.
The military town of Catterick Garrison in the prime minister’s wealthy North Yorkshire seat is receiving £19 million to regenerate the high street. Almost £362 million will be spent in London and the southeast, while £354 million will go to the northwest, prompting accusations that Conservative areas are being favoured.
Shadow communities minister Alex Norris questioned the criteria of the awards, while Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, said the fund is “in chaos, beset by delays and allegations of favouritism.”
“It takes an extraordinary arrogance to expect us to be grateful for a partial refund on the money they have stripped out of our communities, which has decimated vital local services like childcare, buses, and social care,” she said.
“It is time to end this ‘Hunger Games’-style contest where communities are pitted against one another and Whitehall ministers pick winners and losers.”
Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, said the allegations are “simply untrue.”
“I think more of the money is going to Labour-led local authorities than to Conservative-led local authorities and that’s because the money’s been allocated according to a set of objective criteria and on the basis of deliverability,” he told Times Radio.
Asked about the southeast receiving larger sums of cash, Gove said, “It’s simply untrue that the levelling up fund is concentrated disproportionately on London and the southeast.”
He said London and the southeast together constitute a quarter of the country’s population, but that per capita “the biggest winners are those in the northwest.”
“If you look at it in terms of the amount of money allocated per person, then it is the case that it’s the northwest, the northeast, Wales, which do best of all,” he told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme.
The prime minister defended the regeneration of the Catterick Garrison high street in his constituency, saying the funding would deliver the amenities needed by troops living there.
“I’m really grateful to all our armed forces personnel for the incredible job that they do and I’m delighted that this investment will support them,” he said.
Sunak also said that “if you look at the overall funding in the levelling-up funds that we’ve done, about two-thirds of all that funding has gone to the most deprived part of our country.”
