£24m grant for former steel town was ‘political’ move, says bid chief
A FORMER industrial town in Yorkshire was handed £24m in regeneration funding from the Government’s controversial Towns Fund because of its highprofile Conservative candidate standing in a marginal seat at the 2019 General Election, according to a senior businessman involved in the bid.
Mark Dransfield, who cochairs the Stocksbridge Towns Fund Board, said the decision to put the ex-steel town on the list of 101 places sharing the £3.6bn fund despite being rated as a ‘low priority’ on the Government’s own criteria was “political”.
He defended the awarding of the funding, which will pay for schemes including a new funicular railway and a transformation of the town centre, as a long overdue investment in an area which has been “given nothing at all in the past”.
But his claim that the decision was partly influenced by party politics contradicts the stance of the Government, who insisted the process for choosing successful towns was fair despite claims Ministers targeted marginal seats.
It came as the Government was criticised over the way the preferred areas for another project, the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, were chosen.
After Stocksbridge was shortlisted in the summer of 2019, Conservative candidate Miriam Cates successfully overturned a 1,322-vote Labour majority to win the seat for the Tories for the first time ever. Boris Johnson visited Stocksbridge in September 2019 in what Mr Dransfield, who runs a property firm, said was the first visit by a Prime Minister since Harold Wilson in 1964.
He said: “It started as a political thing initially because the Conservatives put a candidate against the Labour Party here in Stocksbridge and she got in, and we had visits from Boris Johnson, and Robert Jenrick and various other people.
“And I think on the strength of that, that’s what secured the Towns Fund bid that we took forward, which was amazing.”
He added: “We live in a political world. And things happen with politics. What Miriam has done is brought the money here. I want what is best for South Yorkshire, not what is best for the Conservative Party or the Labour Party or the Green movement. We want the best for our community.
“And what this has done for the first time in a long time, it’s united everybody together, and we’ve got a purpose and people feel as though they’re cared about and they’re recognised and it’s so important.”
Mrs Cates said: “Stocksbridge is a town that has been left behind for decades. Despite its proximity to Sheffield, Stocksbridge has not shared in the city’s growth and regeneration, and has received very little attention or investment to help regenerate the economy.
“I am immensely proud of the community effort that has gone into putting our bid together, with representatives from across the town and across different political parties.”
Stocksbridge, Brighouse, Todmorden and Morley, all of which were in battleground seats at 2019’s General Election, were among the 16 Yorkshire towns invited to bid for up to £25m from the Towns Fund despite being rated as ‘low-priority’ against the Government’s criteria.
Last week nine towns and cigties in Yorkshire and the Humber found out how funding they would be getting.
The Government says it will help local leaders “transform their town’s economic growth prospects with a focus on improved transport, broadband connectivity, skills and culture”.
A National Audit Office report shows 61 of the 101 shortlisted towns were chosen at the discretion of Ministers led by Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government defended the shortlisting process.