Govt delays award of Levelling Up cash again
North West councils that have bid for a combined £800m from the fund will have to wait until the new year to find out if they have been successful.
In a letter to MPs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up Dehenna Davison said a decision on where the money would be distributed would come “by the end of January”.
The announcement of the successful Levelling Up Fund round two bids had originally been expected in October.
Then-Secretary of State Simon Clarke then revised this to the “end of the year” after a period of political upheaval.
“I appreciate that this delay will be disappointing given the huge amount of work that has gone into applications for the Levelling Up Fund,” Davison said.
The government said that the delay is due to the amount of “high-quality applications” received, adding that it was increasing the pot available for round two applications from £1.7bn to £2.1bn.
North West authorities have requested more than £800m from the second round of the Levelling Up Fund.
Notable schemes in the running for funding include £50m for Eden Project North in Morecambe, £20m for the expansion of Greatie Market in Liverpool, and £20m for a culture hub and food hall in Wythenshawe.
READ MORE: Here’s a list of North West Levelling Up Fund bids
Everything in this country is a competition, pitting region against region, city against city, no wonder we`re failing. Why aren`t places given the financial and administrative powers to improve their areas in terms of infrastructure and services as happens in many European countries, instead of this never ending favouritism, so frustrating.
By Anonymous
Anonymous is right. It’s a ploy to get everyone at each other’s throats rather than Westminster’s.
By Elephant
Responding to Elephant and Anonymous, for Greater Manchester regions following Michael Gove’s recent statements some local politicians desperate to protect their re-election prospects want to grab the chance to bail out of the PfE plan, which itself is a much watered down version of the original GMSF concept. The whole original idea was that if a masterplan could be agreed then government would provide money for infrastructure to bring GROWTH, NEW wealth, NEW housing, NEW industry and businesses, NEW business opportunities to the region and especially to the deprived Northern regions and particularly the very deprived North East areas. If these politicians and areas just want to trundle along as they have done for 50 years and are not prepared to go for the growth that is needed to “level up” with prosperous areas of the country that get off their backsides and have a go, then why on earth should they expect to receive ANY “levelling up” money?? The fact is that in such a case it would not be money for “levelling up”, it would be just more government charitable handouts to regions which in the circumstances do not deserve them, and a waste of public money.
By J. W.