Help rescue North's 'hollowed-out town centres', Yorkshire Tory MP Andrew Percy urges Ministers

Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy urged Ministers to approve as many bids as possible for the initiative, which will see £3.6bn in regeneration funding distributed to dozens of towns around the UK.

A number of Yorkshire's Labour MP used a Commons debate on the Towns Fund to attack the project after analysis revealed a high proportion of the areas offered up to £25m were marginal seats at the 2019 General Election.

West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper said the fund did not go far enough to tackle the disproportionate impact of austerity on towns, and criticised the fact that Knottingley in her constituency had missed out on funding while other less hard-hit towns had been successful.

Mr Percy, who spoke next in the debate, told Labour MP Ms Cooper: "We'll take no lectures from the party opposite who had 13 years in power, and did absolutely nothing to invest in any meaningful way in our towns across the North of England."

He said the port town of Goole, which was successful in the bidding process, had submitted a plan based on digital, flood protection and connectivity improvements in areas such as the Goole to Leeds train line.

The MP added: "We have many of the issues that go along with many northern towns, which have missed out on regeneration in recent decades.

"When I was elected here 10 years ago we had very high youth unemployment, unemployment, which was above the national average. And whilst we're now below that there are still obviously considerable issues when it comes to skilling people up to take many of the jobs that are being created locally.

"There is some good news locally, though, we've had a lot of good news in recent years, not least of which is the massive investment by Siemens who are busy now constructing a rail factory that will produce the underground trains for London Underground, huge investment from [chemicals firm] Croda, and that has happened with government support.

"But if you come to Goole, you will still see what you see in many towns which is hollowed out town centres, so whilst we have improvements in educational standards, big investment coming, hundreds of new homes being built here, the town centre very much looks as though it is still in decline, as is common across the country, that is why this fund is so important.

"That is why it's so vital that as many of these bids being submitted as possible are granted by the government. Although we've got good stuff going on here we still have considerable challenges in the town centre, challenges with our college here which was just announced it's going to be closed."

In total 101 towns across England were chosen to bid for up to £25m from the Towns Fund last September, with the amount of money ultimately awarded depending on the strength of investment plans drawn up locally.

The Government says the funding will help local leaders "transform their town’s economic growth prospects with a focus on improved transport, broadband connectivity, skills and culture".

The Yorkshire towns of Castleford, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Goldthorpe, Keighley, Rotherham, Scarborough and Stainforth were selected automatically after being graded as high priority by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Brighouse, Morley, Stocksbridge and Todmorden were chosen despite being rated as 'low-priority' and Goole, Shipley, Wakefield and Whitby made the list after being ranked as 'medium-priority'.

The NAO report shows 61 of the towns were chosen at the discretion of Ministers led by Robert Jenrick, the housing and communities secretary. An analysis shows that all but one of them were either Conservative-held seats or Tory targets before the election.

Ms Cooper, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, told the Commons that the scheme "simply does not go far enough".

She said: "I've been calling for investment in our towns for many years as part of the Labour towns campaign, because we've seen over the last 10 years, the number of jobs growing in our towns has been half the rate of in our cities business growth in our towns has been half the rate than our cities and austerity has hit our towns much harder than our cities.

"We have lost more public services, seen those services shrink back under 10 years of Conservative government austerity."

Labour's shadow communities secretary Steve Reed told the Commons the controversial regeneration scheme "gives back only a tiny proportion" of what the Conservatives previously "stripped away" from the same local areas.

But Communities Minister Luke Hall strongly rejected the Opposition's claims, telling MPs the Towns Fund is the "cornerstone" of the Government's "levelling-up agenda".

Mr Hall said Labour MPs are "wrong" to say that financial support has been "targeted at Conservative-held areas".

He told MPs: "The majority of towns selected were either in Labour or opposition held local authority areas.

"Those councils have worked with us, cooperatively and passionately trying to put together their bids to deliver investment in their communities, but the Labour Party in Westminster are determined on rejecting the support to their communities and attacking regeneration projects in towns and cities that they neglected for years and years."