Government accused of prioritising Conservative levelling up bids

In an urgent question today, the government has been accused of prioritising Conservative levelling bids, following the announcement of levelling up funding last night.

Levelling up committee chair Clive Betts said: “Why don’t we stop the pretence that this is anything really to do with levelling up whatsoever? It’s one of around 300 pots of money that councils have to spend a lot of time bidding for”.

Minister Lucy Frazer responded: “There is coordinated action across government to ensure that we do support levelling up. I’m sorry that the honourable gentleman does not feel that £2 billion across the country, levelling up cultural areas in terms of transport, making sure that the areas where communities live are improved, is not worthwhile”.