Funding National Service could see £175 million in cuts across Yorkshire, analysis suggests

Yesterday Rishi Sunak announced that his party will introduce National Service which would see 18-year-olds either join the armed forces or take part in volunteer work in their community.

The Conservative Party said that from 2028/29 this will be funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), a £1.5 billion pot which is one of the major funding streams for Levelling Up.

Analysis by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership of current funding allocations found that losing UKSPF funding would amount to an almost £175 million cut across Yorkshire.

Labour said that the announcement was the “final nail in the coffin of the Tory levelling up lie”.

Conservative sources suggested that National Service “goes to the heart of what levelling up set out to achieve” and its extension of the UKSPF showed the party’s commitment to the project alongside other schemes such as freeports in Yorkshire.

In 2022 Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, said that the fund was targeted at “areas of the country that need it most” to “unleash the creativity and talent of communities that have for too long been overlooked and undervalued”.

The policy was designed to be a “central pillar” of Levelling Up funding and be a “predictable, long-term funding stream which local leaders are free to use as they see fit to unleash their unique potential” according to government documents.

It is used by mayors and councils to deliver programmes such as Multiply, a scheme used to improve numeracy for adults that struggle with maths.

It is understood that the current cliff-edge for the funding, which is due to expire in March 2025, has seen some authorities prepare for job losses and the removal of services that would widen economic inequalities.

Multiply is one of the major schemes funded by the UKSPF, announced in Rishi Sunak’s 2021 budget, with the then-chancellor saying it would “help to change people’s lives across the whole United Kingdom”.

The Prime Minister has made maths training and “maths to 18” one of his flagship policies in his first speech of 2023, as he sought to address the fact that nearly half of the UK’s working-age population has the expected numeracy levels of a primary school leaver, according to research.

“We’ve got to start prizing numeracy for what it is – a key skill every bit as essential as reading,” he said at the time.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, said: “This chaotic raid on the shared prosperity fund will strip millions from Yorkshire councils and Metro Mayors’ budgets, just to fund a desperate election announcement.

“This is the final nail in the coffin of the Tory levelling up lie. ⁠If the Tories are allowed five more years in Government, more money and power will be taken from communities across Yorkshire and the North.”

A Conservative source said: "Unlike the Labour Party who have abandoned the Levelling Up mission, we remain committed to spreading opportunity everywhere.

"We have extended the UKSPF for an extra three years, alongside delivering freeports across the country, transformational local transport funding in Yorkshire and over a billion pounds committed for a long term plan for towns.

"National service goes to the heart of what levelling up set out to achieve and will spread jobs, skills and opportunities around the country."

In West Yorkshire, the fund also provides support for getting people who are long-term sick back into work, one of Mr Sunak’s other key policies in recent months.

In North Yorkshire, proposed UKSPF-funded projects also included active travel and sports aimed at increasing healthy life expectancy in deprived communities.

Across South Yorkshire, the scheme is used to support employment and business programmes in the region.

Oliver Coppard, the Labour Mayor of South Yorkshire said: “The Tories’ plans for citizens service would fatally undermine employment and business support programmes in South Yorkshire and elsewhere.

“The money they want to use to force young people to join the armed forces is the money that right now we use to help people to get back into work, and to start and grow businesses.

“What’s the plan to replace those programmes in places like South Yorkshire? Like the rest of the Tory’s campaign so far, this idea would be laughable if it didn’t threaten to do so much damage to people and communities across South Yorkshire.”

Henri Murison, NPP Chief Exec said: "Metro Mayors, including the one remaining Conservative Ben Houchen, will all lose the resources they have had for important projects, including to improve numeracy through Multiply which was championed by Rishi Sunak.”

“The areas which voted to leave and promised they would be better, not worse off in funding terms, will have their monies sent to pay for a scheme which will do little or nothing to remove the huge disparities between North and South in this country.”