Backlash on funding for levelling up
Storm as Rishi Sunak’s constituency is classed as more in need than Barnsley
CHANCELLOR RISHI Sunak was facing a growing backlash last night from northern leaders over the way vital “levelling up” funding was being distributed around the region.
Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis said it “beggared belief ” that Mr Sunak’s North Yorkshire constituency was put in a higher-priority category than Sheffield and Barnsley in the Government’s flagship £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund.
It emerged yesterday Richmondshire was also on a list of 100 areas prioritised for funding for another scheme while Hull, the fourth most deprived local authority area in the country, missed out.
The Chancellor was facing calls to reveal the methodology behind both decisions and was warned he faced a repeat of the Towns Fund “fiasco” where a number of Tory target seats in the 2019 election were earmarked for up to £25m in regeneration funding, despite not meeting criteria.
Funding packages for the first 45 successful areas, including a number in Yorkshire, were revealed this week and 40 were in areas that now have Conservative MPs.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the allocation would look “fishy” to the public but Boris Johnson said it was partly due to his success in the General Election, meaning the Tories now represented a lot of towns.
The Levelling Up Fund, announced last year, will hand £4.8bn to “impactful” infrastructure projects in areas where they will make the biggest difference.
A report this week revealed all local areas have been placed in one of three categories, with the top category “representing the highest level of identified need”. Preference will be given to bids from higher-priority areas.
It added: “The metrics used to determine a given place’s category include consideration of its need for economic recovery, regeneration and improved connectivity.”
Mr Jarvis wrote to the Chancellor that Richmondshire was in a higher category of need than Barnsley, Sheffield, Salford and Halton, which have much higher rates of Covid-19 deaths.
He wrote: “Whatever the formula, the reality is that you have allocated support in a way that favours places that are affluent over those that are deprived; places that are resilient over those that are vulnerable; places that have suffered less from Covid over those that have suffered more.
“Poorer communities in the North have been treated especially unfairly, making a mockery of the Government commitment to levelling up.
“This is part of a wider pattern. The pandemic has disproportionately targeted the most disadvantaged communities. Government support has not.”
A councillor in Richmondshire said the district had problems of its own and needed Government support because of a lack of public transport and good jobs.
But Keith Aspden, the Liberal Democrat leader of York Council – which is in the lowest category for the Levelling Up Fund – said: “Questions remain about how strategic and how fair the current investment plan is.
“Fairness and transparency must be embedded in the Government’s regeneration funding schemes for the region to succeed and drive recovery together, rather than see the North put on course for a divided recovery.”
A Treasury spokesman said: “All local areas in the UK will be able to apply for funding through the levelling-up fund.
“The bandings do not represent eligibility criteria and money will be allocated to the areas most in need. Further technical details will be published by the Government in due course.”
You have allocated support in a way that favours the affluent. Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis in his letter to the Chancellor.
A SENIOR Tory has claimed “the failings of socialism” prompted the Government to set up multibillion pound levelling-up funds after being quizzed by a Yorkshire MP on why one of the country’s most deprived areas had missed out on vital investment.
Commons leader Jacob ReesMogg told Hull’s Diana Johnson that schemes like the £3.6bn Towns Fund and £220m Community Renewal Fund were needed after “decades of socialist mismanagement”.
City leaders in Hull, which is the fourth most deprived area in the country, are furious after being told they are not eligible for either of the two schemes created to level up deprived areas.
It emerged after the Budget that Rishi Sunak’s constituency of Richmondshire is one of 100 priority places allowed to bid for the Community Renewal Fund.
The Chancellor was already facing accusations of “pork-barrel politics” after it was revealed his constituency was in the highest category for a separate scheme, the flagship £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, ahead of areas like Sheffield and Barnsley.
The Community Renewal Fund was designed to help communities before the arrival of the Shared Prosperity Fund, which replaces what previously came to the UK via its membership of the European Union.
Some £220m is being handed out to “help support local areas to pilot imaginative new approaches and programmes that unleash their potential, instil pride and prepare them to take full advantage of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund when it launches in 2022”.
In Parliament yesterday Diana Johnson questioned Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg on why Hull was not in the 100 priority areas for the Community Renewal Fund based on an index of economic resilience.
She said of the 45 towns and cities to be told how much they were getting from the Government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund, with a shortlist of 101 revealed before the 2019 General Election, 40 now have Conservative MPs.
Dame Diana added: “It seems with three Labour MPs Hull is excluded from even being considered.”
Mr Rees-Mogg replied: “The reason we need this fund is because of the failings of socialism, socialist councils, socialist MPs letting down their constituents and this Government is putting things right, it is levelling up.
“Many of the areas receiving the money still have socialist councils but in their wisdom they elected Conservative MPs to get over decades of socialist mismanagement.”