Fifty-five towns across the UK are set to benefit from a £1.1bn levelling up investment, the Prime Minister has announced.

The ‘left-behind’ towns will each be given £20m over a 10-year period to help regenerate high streets and tackle anti-social behaviour, the PM said yesterday on the eve of the Conservative Party conference.

Each of the towns will be able to develop a long-term plan supported by a Towns Board, which will bring together community leaders, employers, local authorities, and the local MP.

Mr Sunak said: ‘Towns are the place most of us call home and where most of us go to work. But politicians have always taken towns for granted and focused on cities.

‘The result is the half-empty high streets, run-down shopping centres and anti-social behaviour that undermine many towns’ prosperity and hold back people’s opportunity – and without a new approach, these problems will only get worse.

‘That changes today. Our Long-Term Plan for Towns puts funding in the hands of local people themselves to invest in line with their priorities, over the long-term. That is how we level up.’

Responding to the announcement, Angela Rayner, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, said the move was ‘barely more than shiny headlines’.

‘It takes a special kind of arrogance for a Prime Minister caught on tape boasting that he had swiped money from “deprived urban areas” to now expect local people to be grateful for a promise to hand a tiny fraction of it back,’ she added.

Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove said: ‘We know that in our towns the values of hard work and solidarity, common sense and common purpose, endeavour and quiet patriotism have endured across generations. But for too long, too many of our great British towns have been overlooked and undervalued.

‘We are putting this right through our Long-Term Plan for Towns backed by over £1bn of levelling up funding.’

If this article was of interest, then check out our feature, 'Levelling up for the next generation'.