‘End Hunger Games funding competition’
THE Government must “end the Hunger Games style competition” for community funding, Labour has said.
Shadow levelling-up secretary Lisa Nandy also claimed that Michael Gove’s department was the “biggest loser” in the autumn statement, and his pleas for more funding for councils had been “ignored by the Chancellor”.
But the Communities Secretary insisted his department was “securing the funding it needs” in the wake of Jeremy Hunt’s announcement.
At communities questions in the Commons, Ms Nandy said: “Only a third of the levelling up funds have been allocated and after wasting our time with the short lived investment zones, the second round is months behind schedule.
“So can we bring some sense to this madness. End the Hunger Games style competition and allow all our communities not just his favourites to decide how their own money is spent?”
Communities secretary Michael Gove described Lisa Nandy as the “Marcus Rashford of the Labour Party, the person coming on at the last minute may actually change the fortunes of the team for the better”.
He added: “I wish (her) good luck in all future penalty shootouts, if it is Hunger Games they’re talking about then it’s the Labour Party leadership which is closer to that than any other contest in this House.
“But on the substantive point that she makes, it is important that we look at how we fund local government overall and of course there does need to be competitive funding in order to make sure that we can learn from the best, but it is also the case that we need to look at formula funding as well and we shall.”
Ms Nandy responded: “I’m more than happy to be compared to Marcus Rashford, feeding our kids when their Government lets them go starving hungry.”
She added: “We both know the only way out of this crisis, is to get local and regional economies growing.
“So how can it be that the key department responsible for this was the biggest loser in last week’s autumn statement.
“It makes no sense unless they have collectively decided to abandon attempts to level up our regional economies.”
Mr Gove replied: “Well the autumn statement was at a time of challenging news for the global economy.
“Absolutely the right response and again, not only did we secure a significant increase in funding, we also... secured billions additionally for adult social care and for children’s services.”