Plans for a Yorkshire 'levelling up director' could be dropped

Yorkshire is in line for one of 12 regional levelling up directors – nine for England and one each for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – as part of Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove’s white paper published last February.

The posts – with an annual salary of £120,000 to £144,000 – were advertised in April, attracting more than 500 applications, but nine months on, the Government has yet to announce any appointments.

According to the Government’s white paper, the roles would “act as a single point of contact for local leaders and a first port of call for new and innovativelocal policy proposals”.

Dehenna Davison, a levelling Up minister, told a cross-party committee of MPs that no directors have yet been appointed and that the recruitment process was now the subject of an internal review.

A senior official in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) acknowledged the review could result in the plan being dropped entirely.

Giving evidence to the Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee on Monday, Ms Davison said the recruitment process was now the subject of an internal review to ensure they got it “absolutely spot on”.

“There was some work done over the summer with some interviews run for levelling up directors,” she said.

“We want to make sure that when we put directors in place they are doing the right work and we have got the right people there. There is a bit of an internal review going on at the moment.”

However Jessica Blakely, the director of levelling up major programmes at DLUHC, said there was a “pause and reassessment” which could mean no directors would be appointed.

It comes as another levelling up minister said that a competitive process for doling out more than £2 billion in Whitehall money for local projects is the “best way after being tackled over millions of pounds being wasted on unsuccessful bids.

Baroness Scott of Bybrook defended the way the levelling-up fund had been distributed in the face of calls for it to be handed directly to councils.

It follows controversy over the way £2.1 billion was recently allocated to more than 100 projects.

Pressed over devolving the centrally allocated money to local authorities, Lady Scott said: “Competitive funding can be a very effective tool for protecting value for taxpayers’ money.

“Competitions like the levelling up fund can also support fair and transparent awards of funds and drive innovation.”