Hardly any Levelling Up cash spent so far as fund dubbed 'waste' of public money
manchestereveningnews.co.ukThe government cannot provide any compelling examples of what Levelling Up funding has delivered so far, a new report has concluded.
MPs on the public accounts committee have found that just a fraction of the cash promised has been spent so far. Just over 10 per cent of the £10.47bn promised to councils since 2020 had been spent by September 2023, the committee found - and by December, only £3.7bn had actually been given to local authorities.
In November, the Manchester Evening News asked all 10 councils in Greater Manchester for an update on each of the projects that they have been promised Levelling Up funding for.
While work has started on many projects, some have faced delays. An increase in construction costs has also meant that some projects have been modified while town halls have had to find extra funding for some schemes, including in Bury and Radcliffe. READ MORE: 'Some buildings in London and Cambridge get more money than the North' The new report claims that bids for so-called 'shovel-ready' projects have been favoured over schemes that would have had a greater impact.
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