Levelling up fund accused of southern bias
London and the South East will be handed more of the levelling up funding that the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, with wealthy areas receiving many millions.
The £2.1bn fund is shared between 111 communities across the UK as part of the second round of levelling-up funding.
Tory MPs in seats in the North and Midlands who missed out have accused prime minister Rishi Sunak of favouring the South. One Tory MP in the North West said it “made a mockery of levelling up”.
London and the South East will be handed more of the levelling up funding that the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, with wealthy areas receiving many millions.
The £2.1bn fund is shared between 111 communities across the UK as part of the second round of levelling-up funding.
Tory MPs in seats in the North and Midlands who missed out have accused prime minister Rishi Sunak of favouring the South. One Tory MP in the North West said it “made a mockery of levelling up”.
London, allocated £151m, receives more than both Yorkshire’s £121m and the North East’s £108m. The South East, handed £210m, is the second biggest recipient, receiving nearly twice as much as the North East.
Of the 80 successful bids in England, only half are in the 100 most deprived areas of the country. Affluent areas such as the prime minister’s seat of Richmondshire, Rutland, North Somerset and Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, have been handed cash.
Sunak’s constituency is receiving £19m of funding in the latest round.
The Times (£)
The FT (£)
