Belfast Council’s Chief Executive has launched a scathing attack on the UK government’s levelling up agenda as councillors commissioned a report looking into why the city has not yet received a penny from the fund.
At the council’s recent monthly meeting of its Strategic, Policy and Resources Committee, Sinn Féin Councillor Ronan McLaughlin received cross-party support for his proposal to get a report looking at Belfast City Council ’s unsuccessful attempt for levelling up round two funding for an application surrounding the newly acquired 2 Royal Avenue - previously a Tesco store.
Last week it was announced 10 projects in Northern Ireland will share £71 million of levelling-up funding. £10 million will go to create new waterfront gardens in the newly appointed city of Bangor, £9 million to transform the former Maghera High School into a new industrial park and £20 million to create a new leisure and wellbeing centre in Enniskillen.
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£5.1 million will go to 20 local rugby clubs, with a push for new female changing rooms to help increase women’s participation in sport. £4 million will go to save Belfast’s art-deco Strand Picturehouse, an application independent from the local authority.
Chief Executive John Walsh told the committee: “It is deeply disappointing that 2 Royal Avenue didn’t receive the funding support. The Strand, which we obviously have previously funded, has got the funding.
“But I have to say, when you look at the funding map and consider what has happened here - Belfast may have a perceived renaissance going on, but it remains a city in which there is still significant deprivation, and it has some of the poorest wards.
“It seems to me, the analysis is ‘Belfast gets everything and lets divvy it up around the country.’ I think that is a pretty poor approach, and I have to say some of the criticisms I have seen in the press around this I tend to share. I don’t know if that is me overstepping the mark or not.
“If one looks at levelling up, I am not sure some of the decisions taken around this are actually levelling up, and don’t seem to genuinely generate any significant growth, which is what we should all be about.”
Councillor Ronan McLaughlin said: “The Strand Cinema was the only project in Belfast to receive funding - fair play and congratulations to them, and I am sure it is a great project. But we know that with the current rates setting process that our capital finance and budgets are going to be under pressure over the next few years, and we are going to have to look to certain external funds to try and mitigate, and try and get projects across the line in Belfast.
“We were originally told we shouldn’t go for levelling up in round one, because we would get more in round two, so we just applied for that. We put all our ducks in a row for round two, with a submission regarding 2 Royal Avenue, which unfortunately wasn’t successful.
“I am asking for a report to see what lessons need to be learned, because I think it’s unacceptable that we have put in two applications for a UK-wide fund and both applications have ended up being rejected. I know a lot of work and effort was probably put into it, but we really need to look at the projects we are putting forward, and if they meet the visions of the funds as set out.”
He added: “Local authorities in the north have drawn out over 70 million in funding from the levelling up fund and Belfast has got nothing to this point. Lessons have to be learned and we need to get better at this - and certainly try to be competitive.”
He said: “I still think it was the wrong advice not to go in for round one at the time. And then when we got to round two we were told we only have one viable project, to which my party and I expressed concerns. We were almost presented with a fait accompli, were told there was only one project, and it was going forward.”
People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson said: “To put a bit of context in terms of the wider media, and certainly criticism coming from across the North of England - there are many many projects which had competitive applications which would have impacted incredibly on deprived areas. They were passed over for funding, notably for projects in Rishi Sunak’s own constituency.
“There is only so much that officers can do in the face of this Tory slush fund which is being rolled out in the South of England and limited elsewhere to shore up their base.”
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