Bradford Council spends £610,000 on unsuccessful levelling-up bids

The eye watering figure was revealed in a plea to government by West Yorkshire’s Mayor to end “beauty contest” schemes that pit councils against one another for limited funding pots.

And Bradford Council’s leader has expressed frustration that it emerged the district was unlikely to ever have been successful in the bids – after “weeks and months” of staff time and council resources went into preparing the bids.

In January, the Government announced none of the four bids made by Bradford Council in the second round of the Levelling Up fund had proved successful. They included a £50m plan to transform the Odsal Stadium site, creating a rugby training centre and work that would allow Odsal to double up as a huge music venue.

A robotics training centre and upgrade to the Keighley Worth Valley Railway in Keighley, three wellbeing hubs in the east of Bradford and a refurbished swimming pool in Bingley were the other three bids. Just one West Yorkshire bid, for the refurbishment of Batley town centre, was successful.

After the announcement Government ministers claimed areas that had been successful in the first round in 2021 were unlikely to have been successful in the second round. In 2021 Bradford West was awarded £20m for a new leisure and wellbeing centre at Squire Lane after a successful round one bid.

Ahead of next week’s national Spring Budget, West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin has written to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt setting out what the region needs to hear in the March 15 announcement.

She has called for greater devolution of spending powers, pointing out that Councils across the country have been stretched by having to hurriedly draw up bids and compete against other authorities for limited funding.

“We have been clear on the frustrations of competitive bidding which creates unnecessary distraction from the vital work that needs to be done to level up,” she said. “It is time-consuming with over-engineered processes diverting too much time and money into project management and administration with little added value for communities.

“Restrictive criteria, alongside short timescales stifles innovation and leads to siloed approaches with curtailed ambition. With greater control and powers so much more can be delivered.

“Short term, small pots, that need to be bid for, drain resource both locally and for department officials – (e.g., Levelling Up Fund, Ministry of Justice funds, and the recent bid, with three days’ notice, for capital funding that needs to be spent by March). For example, Bradford Council spent £610,000 preparing the recent Levelling Up Fund bidding process.”

Bradford Council confirmed this figure, but said the authority had received a £110,000 contribution from Government to help develop the bids.

It is the first time the cost of preparing the bids has been made public, and the details comes just weeks after Bradford Council approved its budget that saw council tax rise almost five per cent.

Council leader Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe said the work done as part of the process could still be used in future bids.

After the four proposals were rejected two MPs, Keighley MP Robbie Moore and Shipley MP Philip Davies, criticised Bradford Council for what they claimed were poor quality bids. Government recently released feedback on the four unsuccessful Bradford bids saying three of them were “relatively strong” bids. The Bingley bid was only judged to be “reasonable.”

When asked about the cost of drawing up the bids, Coun Hinchcliffe said: “Bradford District has many opportunities for growth. We need Government to recognise this in their budget on March 15 and invest in us accordingly. We were naturally disappointed not to be successful in the Levelling Up bids as weeks and months of work went into producing them but we were encouraged by the positive feedback we received.

“The Government feedback shows the bids were strong. We are encouraged therefore to pitch for the next round as long as Government are honest with us and other councils about our chances. Government have been clear since the announcement that as we had an award in the first round, we could not get an award in the second round. It’s a lot of money to spend that we can ill afford, for us not to be successful.”