Gove confirms plans to streamline levelling up funding
Levelling up funding will be streamlined, with 10 local authorities serving as pilots for a new pooled system.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove told the Local Government Association annual conference yesterday: “Ten pilot local authorities will be able to spend their existing funding pots – allocated through the Towns, Levelling Up and Future High Streets programmes – more flexibly.”
The department did not name the councils that had been invited to join the Simplification Pathfinder Pilot, but Gove said the government would be publishing plans for a “new, simper landscape for local authorities”, including greater flexibility over how money from the funds can be spent.
Levelling up funding will be streamlined, with 10 local authorities serving as pilots for a new pooled system.
Levelling up secretary Michael Gove told the Local Government Association annual conference yesterday: “Ten pilot local authorities will be able to spend their existing funding pots – allocated through the Towns, Levelling Up and Future High Streets programmes – more flexibly.”
The department did not name the councils that had been invited to join the Simplification Pathfinder Pilot, but Gove said the government would be publishing plans for a “new, simper landscape for local authorities”, including greater flexibility over how money from the funds can be spent.
“I can confirm they will be free to make output, outcome and funding changes up to a threshold of 30% without needing to seek any departmental approval,” Gove said.
In response to criticism from shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy that the current funding system had resulted in a “Hunger Games battle” for resources, Gove said: “I do believe an element of competition in the allocation of funds can help encourage innovation, but you can have too much of a good thing.”
Kevin Bentley, chair of the LGA’s people and places board, said: “Making it easier to access vital funding is a valued move by government, which will boost levelling up and help reinvigorate our communities.”
He added: “Streamlining the long list of local funding pots, reducing the need for costly funding competitions and allocating funds based on evidence of where crucial investment needs to go, has been a long-held ask of local government and the LGA.”
Dominic Curran, the British Property Federation’s assistant director of commercial and retail policy, was less enthusiastic. “This is a sensible move given inflationary cost pressures and more expensive debt finance,” he said. “But this is really a sideshow – ultimately, the best way to deliver lasting local change will be through long term partnerships between the public and private sector. This is where High Street Accelerators can plug a capacity gap and turbo charge the levelling up mission.”
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