Northumberland Labour leader voices anger at levelling up bid process

Northumberland had one of two bids for funding accepted, with a project for Ashington town centre missing out while active travel schemes in Hexham and Bedlington will receive £14.7m.

Nationally, just 111 out of 525 bids were successful – a rate of around one in five.

Northumberland Labour leader Coun Scott Dickinson felt the system was not working for ordinary people.

He said: “The irony of this whole situation is the Government has spent 13 years levelling down, stripping local authorities of the funds they need to provide services for local people and making the gap between the haves and have-nots wider than its ever been. After having done this they’ve then decided what they really need to do is level back up so they hold a bidding process to invite local authorities to beg for cash.

“These bids, four out of five of which were unsuccessful, cost the local authority money which could better be spent on services for residents. The decisions are made in Whitehall, not by someone living locally who can see what the local people need.

“As lovely as it is for the PM to swan around the country giving money out like sweets it would be better to allocate local authorities the appropriate amount in the first place so they can run and develop services.

"We’ve been very fortunate to get £14.7m to improve cycle and walkways in the county, but this is not tackling the lack of social housing – which is a basic factor in levelling up – or the fact that people can’t afford to keep warm.”

Cllr Dickinson said towns like Bedlington, Ashington and Blyth had been left behind and outlined his party’s plans to solve the issue if they were elected nationally.

He added: “Labour has plans in its Take Back Control Bill to devolve more power to local people so they can decide where money should go rather than have to go cap in hand to Whitehall.”

Responding to Cllr Dickinson’s criticism, a Government spokesman said: “The Levelling Up Fund is investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, spreading opportunity to historically overlooked areas.

“All projects were subject to a rigorous assessment process under robust, fair and transparent rules, with no involvement of local MPs in the selection process.”

It was also pointed out that 45% of the total investment across both rounds of funding had been allocated to areas held by opposition parties. The assessment process was designed to target funding at areas that needed it most, but “high quality” bids from category 2 and 3 places that “score highly” across the assessment criteria could also be successful.

A third round of funding will open later this year.