Press Story

Responding to the National Audit Office’s report on levelling up, Zoe Billingham, Director of IPPR North, said:

“This report includes a litany of missed deadlines, moving goalposts and dysfunction in the way levelling up funds have been allocated to councils as part of the government’s flagship programme. As the NAO sets out, this means local authorities have not been able to secure best value.

“The fact that just £900 million has been spent by councils so far out of a total £10.6 billion funding pot, and that by March 2023 just 64 out of 1,300 supposedly ‘shovel ready’ schemes were completed, makes for hard reading.

“It is good to know that the Department for Levelling Up is making changes including to how spending is evaluated. But it’s clear, more will need to be done to restore the confidence of local councils, businesses and communities who are desperate to see progress on rebalancing the country. Long term change takes sustained and coherent investment.”

ENDS

For more information contact: Paul Hebden, IPPR (North) Communications Advisor, 07413 729 505.
p.hebden@ippr.org