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Sunak announces £4bn ‘Levelling Up Fund’
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled a £4bn local projects fund for England as part of his one-year Spending Review.
Speaking from the despatch box today, Mr Sunak said the “Levelling Up Fund” will take “a new holistic place-based approach to the needs of local areas”.
The Treasury, the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will jointly manage the fund.
Mr Sunak did not specify whether the fund will be used to deliver housing projects.
Announcing the fund, he told MPs: “For many people, the most powerful barometer of economic success is the change they see and the pride they feel in the places we call home.
“People want to be able to look around their towns and villages and say, ‘Yes, our community, this place, is better off than it was five years ago.’
“For too long, our funding approach has been complex and ineffective, and I want to change that.”
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The government was heavily criticised earlier this year after the National Audit Office revealed that some of England’s most deprived areas missed out on the £3.6bn Towns Fund while other low-priority areas were selected, with ministers making choices that did not reflect the scoring criteria set out by officials.
All local areas in England will be able to bid for the Levelling Up Fund to pay for “local projects”, Mr Sunak said today.
He added: “Projects must have real impact. They must be delivered within this parliament and they must command local support, including from their member of parliament.
“This is about funding the infrastructure of everyday life: a new bypass, upgraded railway stations, less traffic, more libraries, museums and galleries, and better high streets and town centres.
“This government is funding the things people want and places need.”
Documents accompanying the chancellor’s speech revealed that the fund will pay up to £20m towards projects including “regenerating eyesores” and “upgrading town centres”.
Bids that “drive growth and regeneration in places in need” will be prioritised, as well as places “facing particular challenges, and areas that have received less government investment in recent years”.
Up to £600m will be available in 2021/22, with a prospectus on the fund and the first round of bidding set to launch in the New Year.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive up to £800m in funding off the back of the fund per the Barnett formula.
The Spending Review included the establishment of a UK infrastructure bank, as well as confirmation of a £7.1bn National Home Building Fund to support private housebuilding.
While confirming a pay freeze for public sector workers earning more than £24,000 a year, Mr Sunak also unveiled a 2.2% increase to the National Living Wage to £8.91 an hour and a £2.9bn Restart programme aimed at helping a million people into work.
