Political leaders have called for changes to the Government's "deeply flawed" Levelling Up Fund as figures reveal Nottingham City Council spent over £250,000 on unsuccessful bids last year. The continued redevelopment of the Broad Marsh and improvements to Bulwell town centre were among the projects which money would have been used for if Nottingham was successful.
But it was announced in January that Nottingham City Council had failed on all three of its bids, the third of which centred around the Island Quarter development. The Levelling Up Fund was first announced in 2020 as part of then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's aim to boost economic growth and prosperity in areas lagging behind London and the South East.
The fund involves councils across the country submitting bids to recieve money for specific projects. It had been estimated that the cost of submitting a bid was around £30,000 on average.
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But a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Nottinghamshire Live shows Nottingham City Council spent £250,500 on the last round of the Levelling Up Fund. The figure reflects the cost of consultants used to submit both the Broad Marsh and Bulwell bids.
The Island Quarter bid was funded by the project's developer, Conygar, with Nottingham City Council simply ensuring that bid went through "the correct procedures" before being submitted. The figure does not include the amount of time that council staff spent on the bids, as the authority says this is not always recorded.
The Broad Marsh and Bulwell bids both sought £20 million from the Levelling Up Fund, whilst the Island Quarter bid asked for £17 million. Councillor David Mellen, who leads the Labour-controlled Nottingham City Council, acknowledges that the £250,500 figure is a "fraction" of the funding that was at stake.
Councillor Mellen also says half the costs involved in the bidding process were met from a Government grant. But he has joined several politicians in calling for change to the Levelling Up Fund, which he says the city council "fundamentally disagrees" with.
Nottingham East Labour MP Nadia Whittome said: "The Government's system for awarding Levelling Up funding is deeply flawed and extremely unfair. Councils are being forced to spend their already limited resources preparing bids, with no guarantee they will be successful."
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Although it was again unsuccessful in a bid for the Broad Marsh, Nottingham City Council did secure £18 million from the Levelling Up Fund's first round in 2021. The authority said it was using the money for the renewal of roads and pavements, street lighting and the installation of electric charging points across Nottingham.
But given this partial success in the first round, Ms Whittome recently questioned the Government on whether this meant Nottingham never stood a chance in last year's second round. Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davison confirmed at the January 23 hearing: "It was a decision that was taken to allocate the money and the formula that we used to allocate the funds from Round 2."
Ms Whittome says this admission is "shocking and frustrating" and shows that bids were rejected based on "arbitrary criteria". A Government spokesperson said: "Our decision making criteria, published last year, made clear that ministers could take into account other investment in local areas, including grants from the first round of the fund, to encourage a spread of funding across more areas.
"Only when all bids had been received, and their quality known, could decisions be taken to achieve this." Although Nottingham was unsuccessful, the last round of Levelling Up funding saw around £57 million being awarded to other Nottinghamshire councils.
The four successful councils were Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe and Mansfield. But reacting to the cost of Nottingham's unsuccessful bids, Nottingham South Labour MP Lilian Greenwood said: "The Government's handling of this funding process has been a sham.
"Rishi Sunak bragged about reversing Treasury formulas 'that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas', so how can we trust the Tory Government to allocate these funds fairly? Already struggling local authorities such as Nottingham City Council should not have to waste thousands of pounds competing with each other for scraps just to get the investment they so desperately need."
Lilian Greenwood said Labour would end competitions "which pit community against community" if it came into power, but a Government spokesperson said: "Since the launch of the Levelling Up Fund, we have provided more than £3.8 billion of funding to support over 200 projects that will benefit millions of people across the whole United Kingdom. In this round, we received over 500 proposals with a total value of £8 billion and our aim was to spread opportunity from our £2.1 billion of funding as far as possible."
But many say the Levelling Up Fund would not be required if the Government had not reduced the funding it gives to local councils. An Institute for Government report in 2020 said the spending power of local authorities had fallen by 16% since 2010.
Councillor David Mellen said: "If Government had not drastically cut the funds to local councils over the last 13 years, these piecemeal handouts wouldn't be needed. However, we want the best for Nottingham and don't want to miss out on available funding.
"We have an excellent track record in securing grants from Government and other outside bodies, and believe we put excellent bids together for Levelling Up funding. The vision for reimagining a key central site in one of England's Core Cities, and plans to revitalise a town centre in one of the most disadvantaged parts of the country, are surely precisely all that Levelling Up is supposed to be about.
"So of course, we are bitterly disappointed the bids weren't successful and undoubtedly like other councils spending similar amounts putting such bids together, we would rather not have to." A motion from Labour's Councillor Georgia Power, to be discussed at a full Nottingham City Council meeting on March 6, labels the Levelling Up programme "incoherent" and "badly managed."
The motion calls for a clear definition on the meaning of levelling up and for the key factors behind funding decisions to be laid out. Nottingham North Labour and Co-op MP Alex Norris said: "Our community put their hearts, souls and public money into strong Levelling Up Fund bids. To find out that we essentially weren't allowed to win and were just wasting time and money is a huge insult to our city."
The Government says its rules around the Levelling Up Fund are fair and transparent and that money is targeted at places most in need of investment. A Government spokesperson added: "There will be a further round of the Levelling Up Fund. Before this launches, we will support those bidders who were unsuccessful as we did in the first round, including by providing feedback, to refine their proposals and prepare for the next round."
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