Fifty-five projects across the UK have been awarded a share of nearly £1 billion from the Government’s levelling up fund.
The money will help spread opportunity, create jobs and revitalise local communities, with £825 million going towards regenerating high streets and £150 million towards improving transport links, the Department for Levelling Up said on Monday.
The department stressed that the third round of funding is spread across all parts of Great Britain, after criticism that the last tranche was disproportionately handed to the relatively affluent South East.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was at the time forced to deny that the allocations were motivated by an attempt to shore up support in southern Tory seats.
The latest projects earmarked for funding were chosen from a pool of bids that were unsuccessful in the second round, avoiding the competitive bidding process seen previously.
The North West receives £128 million, the North East £59 million, Yorkshire and the Humber £169 million and the Midlands £171 million in total, according to the levelling up department.
Allocations include £20 million to grow fishing and high-skilled sustainable jobs in Torbay, £18 million to regenerate three former mining communities in Doncaster and £15 million to upgrade Blackpool’s transport network.
The highest award in the funding round – £48 million – goes towards upgrading the Penistone railway line in Yorkshire.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: “Levelling up means delivering local people’s priorities and bringing transformational change in communities that have, for too long, been overlooked and undervalued.
“Today we are backing 55 projects across the UK with £1 billion to create new jobs and opportunities, power economic growth and revitalise local areas.
“This funding sits alongside our wider initiatives to spread growth, through devolving more money and power out of Westminster to towns and cities, putting in place bespoke interventions to places that need it most, and our Long-Term Plan for Towns.”
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) complained that no cash was allocated to Northern Ireland despite “hundreds of suitable applications”.
The party’s Treasury spokesman Sammy Wilson said: “This is an outrageous act by the Government. Under the cloak of economic blackmail, the Government has syphoned money away from Northern Ireland to shore up Conservative seats in England.
“The Government’s rationale for this decision is as spurious as it is outrageous. An absence of an Executive has no material effect on the allocations indeed, the principal objection in Scotland and Wales to the Levelling Up Fund is that it is driven by Westminster rather than the devolved regions.
“The Government should be honest. The real reason for this allocation is to direct more money into the marginal seats in Great Britain where the Conservative Party is struggling.”
