The Government must act swiftly and simplify the levelling up funding system - Olivia Blake

A flagship Conservative programme, the Levelling Up Fund was created to reduce regional inequality and improve key local services such as education, broadband and transport. In theory, through the programme, local authorities can apply for money from the government to pay for regeneration projects.

Yet the promised funds have been wasted. Of the £10.47bn allocated - which has to be spent between 2020-21 and 2025-26 - only £1.24bn has been spent as of September 2023.

The committee also found that just 64 of more than 1,100 projects have been finished so far, with more than 80 per cent of those due for completion this month forecast to miss that deadline.

This money was supposed to be out of the door and helping communities in real need. Instead, local authorities have only been able to access a fraction of the funds available.

There is also a worrying lack of transparency in the allocation of funds. More impactful bids to funding have lost out due to optimism bias in favour of ‘shovel-ready’ projects.

On top of that, the projects that were successful in early rounds of funding have been met with delays – with more delays almost certain down the line.

Rather than support the local authorities applying for this essential funding, the Government has made it harder for them. Midway through the process they changed the application rules with no advance communication to councils. This resulted in 55 local authorities making bids under the old rules with no chance of being successful, with an average bid costing councils £30,000. Essentially, the Government has ended up wasting money and time, with little regard for transparency.

We are now 14 years into Conservative rule and in Sheffield we know all too well the regional inequality they have created in that time. The UK remains one of the most spatially unequal and over-centralised countries in Europe. The gap between the richest and poorest parts of this country is continuing to widen. More and more families are struggling to make ends meet and living standards have plummeted.

In January this year, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published sobering findings that over a third of Sheffield’s children are living in poverty. The Government has made repeated promises of addressing this stark inequality – and repeatedly broken them.

People across the country deserve better. Unless the funding system is streamlined, this much-needed money will struggle to reach local communities.

The Government must now act swiftly to simplify the funding system and reduce the administrative burden on local authorities. It’s time Ministers delivered on their promises and gave local authorities the money needed to make a real difference on the ground.

Olivia Blake is the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam.