{"id":29483,"date":"2021-03-23T16:38:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T16:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29483"},"modified":"2021-03-23T16:38:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T16:38:01","slug":"englands-levelling-up-fund-prospectus-viewed-from-the-lgc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29483","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s Levelling Up Fund Prospectus, viewed from the LGC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As the government has published the long-awaited prospectus for the Levelling Up Fund, the Local Government Chronicle<\/em> (LGC) offers its analysis.<\/h3>\n

\u2026 smaller transport projects, town centre and high street regeneration\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u2026 prioritise bids that can demonstrate investment or begin delivery on the ground\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

LGC writes:<\/p>\n

The Levelling Up Fund is a joint venture between the Department for Transport, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Treasury which is worth \u00a34bn in England over four years, including \u00a3600m next year.<\/p>\n

But as\u00a0LGC reported last week<\/a>, \u00a3300m of the fund is cash that was earmarked for a Towns Fund competition, while the fund also partially takes the place of the Local Growth Fund which was previously allocated through local enterprise partnerships.<\/p>\n

The Levelling Up Fund will be open to single tier councils and district councils in two tier areas. Counties, combined authorities and the Greater London Authority (GLA) will only be able to bid for transport infrastructure projects. Capacity funding to help develop bids will be allocated to councils \u201cmost in need of levelling up\u201d, as identified in an index published alongside the prospectus.<\/p>\n

The first round of the fund focuses on three themes: smaller transport projects, town centre and high street regeneration and support for maintaining and expanding cultural and heritage assets. The prospectus says projects should \u201cbe aligned to and support net zero goals\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The government claims that the cross-departmental nature of the fund \u201crepresents a new approach to local investment and will end siloes in Whitehall that make it difficult to take a holistic approach to the infrastructure needs of local areas\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The prospectus sets out the approach for the first round of the fund, which will prioritise bids that can demonstrate investment or begin delivery on the ground in the coming financial year. It says this approach will be kept \u201cunder review\u201d for future rounds….<\/p>\n

Since the Towns Fund was launched in 2019 as part of a \u00a33.6bn package, there has been criticism from some areas that their bids were overlooked because of previous Treasury Green Book principles that prioritised funding for areas with higher land values and prospects.<\/p>\n

However, the prospectus says that the Levelling Up Fund \u201cembodies the approach of the Green Book review\u201d by \u201cfocusing on the needs of individual places and the strategic case for investment\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fund is \u201cespecially intended to support investment in places where it can make the biggest difference to everyday life, including ex-industrial areas, deprived towns and coastal communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

When the Chancellor first announced the Levelling Up Fund in the last Spending Review he laid down a \u00a320m limit for capital investment through the fund. But the prospectus reveals that \u201cbids above \u00a320m and below \u00a350m will be accepted for transport projects\u201d such as road schemes….<\/p>\n

The fund sits within the wider context of the Chancellor\u2019s announcement at the Spending Review of \u00a3100bn of capital spending in 2021-22, a \u00a330bn cash increase compared to 2019-20.<\/p>\n

Geographic spread of new Towns Fund allocations revealed\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Chancellor has had to fend an awkward question at his Budget press conference as to why 40 out of 45 places announced today to receive towns funding have Conservative MPs….<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the government has published the long-awaited prospectus for the Levelling Up Fund, the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) offers its analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29484,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29483\/revisions\/29484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}