Projects in the South East benefited from £9.2m from the fund in the year to 31 March 2022. In comparison, the North East received just £4.9m, despite being the poorest area in Britain by household income. The £4.8bn fund is under scrutiny for its failure to date to deliver in some of the country’s poorest areas. There are also questions about the criteria for allocating money, after former chancellor Rishi Sunak told an audience he had changed funding types to divert money away from “deprived urban areas”. Ministers want the multibillion-pound fund to provide a cash boost to some of the UK’s poorest areas, but new figures obtained under freedom of information laws reveal just £107.4m of funds were delivered in the year to March 31, 2022. Leveling up Jack Shaw, a local government researcher who received the new figures, said: “With less than 3% of the leveling fund having been spent in its first year, the rhetoric of the boom does not match the reality. “The government needs to be clear about why this is happening and why [the north-east] despite a focus on correcting regional imbalances, it has received less than 5% of the fund’s spending to date.” Initially, it was hoped the fund would deliver £600m in 2021/22. The figure was revised downwards to £200m, but that target has not been met either. New figures reveal the West Midlands received the most money in 2021/22, with projects receiving £16.3m. Northern Ireland received the least amount, with projects receiving just over £1m of cash, equivalent to £57m per head of population. While the North East received less funding than the South East in 2021/22, it did receive more per head of population: £1.83 per head, compared to £1 per head of population received by the South East. Lisa Nandy called for an investigation into why funds had not reached some of the poorest areas. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Officials say they allocated £1.7 billion in the first round of funding in which the winners were announced in October last year. Bids for the second round closed last month. In the 2020 spending review, Sunak announced the launch of the leveling fund to support cities and communities with regeneration programmes. It will run for four years from 2021/22 to 2024/25. The methodology for allocating the awards has faced criticism for not using levels of deprivation to rank areas for priority funding. Lisa Nandy, the shadow raising secretary, called for an investigation into why some of the poorest communities have so far missed out on upgrading awards. A spokesman for the Department for Equalization, Housing and Communities said: “This is a selective use of numbers and does not accurately represent allocations from the first round of the Equalization Fund, where the North and Yorkshire are receiving £519 million, more than southeast and London together. “We are working closely with all levels of government to relentlessly advance our shared ambition to fuel regeneration and growth in areas that have been overlooked and undervalued for too long.”
