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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Sarah Hilley

Glasgow misses out on levelling up funding to restore People's Palace

Glasgow has missed out on winning major funding to restore the People’s Palace and other improvements.

The UK Government’s Levelling Up fund snubbed the city’s bids, which also included improving transport to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and regeneration plans for Drumchapel, Easterhouse and other areas.

Elsewhere in Scotland a new ferry for Fair Isle in Shetland and refurbishment of a Kilmarnock theatre are among a number of projects to land money in Scotland.

READ MORE: Glasgow residents ordered to tear down garden decking for the second time

Council leader Susan Aitken has hit out at the process and branded it “skewed.”

Responding to Glasgow’s exclusion during the latest cash allocations, councillor Aitken slammed Westminster for targeting “resources away from our most socially and economically challenged communities.”

The SNP leader said: “Any claim that this process will address inequalities has been proven to be an utter sham.

“We know because UK officials fed back to us that Glasgow submitted superb bids including restoring the People’s Palace, providing better transport connectivity to the country’s biggest hospital, and improving local town centres across the city.

"Any of these would have supported the levelling up of communities immeasurably more than the £19 million the Prime Minister awarded to his own constituency.”

The Langside politician said “the whole process has come at a significant financial cost to Glasgow.

“Based on the evidence of these outcomes we’ve major concerns that this process has been seriously skewed and I will be raising this with the UK Government immediately.”

The local democracy reporting service asked the UK Government why Glasgow was omitted considering the high levels of poverty in the city.

A Levelling Up spokeswoman said: “The Levelling Up Fund is investing in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, spreading opportunity to historically overlooked areas.

“All projects were subject to a rigorous assessment process under robust, fair and transparent rules, with no involvement of local MPs in the selection process.”

Glasgow previously won £13 million Levelling Up funding to redevelop Pollok Country Park Stables and Sawmill.

A total of 111 areas across the UK have been awarded money from the second round of the government's Levelling Up Fund.

The government says at least nine per cent of total Levelling Up Fund allocations are set aside for Scotland and so far the fund has given £349 million to the nation.

It says bids are spread fairly across the UK with around 45 per cent of investment across both rounds allocated to areas held by opposition parties.

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