Ministers ‘levelling up Tory electoral prospects’

THE GOVERNMENT has been accused by a Labour peer of acting only to “level up the Conservative Party’s electoral prospects rather than the economic realities of left-behind communities”.

The House of Lords debated the Government’s Levelling Up Fund yesterday, with Baroness Wilcox of Newport saying it was based on a “flawed methodology” and contributed to a “divide and rule approach”.

At the Budget earlier this month a priority list was revealed for the Government’s £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, ranking areas which would be more likely to get funding if they bid for the scheme.

Methodology released a week later showed this list was based on measurements such as commuting times, and therefore areas such as Richmondshire, which includes the Chancellor’s constituency, ranked highly.

Baroness Wilcox said: “This list, as it currently appears, is proof that this Government’s actions are levelling areas down, pushing regions and nations and some of the poorest places in the UK to the back of the queue for investment. It appears to be about this Government using the money to level up the Conservative Party’s electoral prospects rather than the economic realities of left behind communities.”

Liberal Democrat Baroness Pinnock, who is also a councillor on Kirklees Council, said: “Of course, metrics can be carefully selected to ensure that the towns that the Government wish to benefit from additional funding come out top of the pile.”

But Lord Greenhalgh, responding for the Government, said: “The methodology used to develop the index and the index have been published and the index is around the need for focusing on areas that have a need for economic recovery and growth, a need for improved transport and connectivity, and a need for regeneration.”