The Government’s levelling up agenda has been characterised by ‘astonishing delays’ and blind optimism, according to Parliament’s spending watchdog.
The Public Accounts Committee has found that councils have only spent £1.24bn of the £10.47bn available to them to reduce inequality.
The PAC also discovered that by December 2023 only £3.7bn had been given to local authorities out of the total allocation by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier MP said: ‘The levels of delay that our report finds in one of Government’s flagship policy platforms is absolutely astonishing.
‘The vast majority of Levelling Up projects that were successful in early rounds of funding are now being delivered late, with further delays likely baked in.
‘DLUHC appears to have been blinded by optimism in funding projects that were clearly anything but ‘shovel-ready’, at the expense of projects that could have made a real difference.’
A DLUHC spokesperson said: 'Buildings do not go up overnight and these are multi-year programmes, so it is to be expected that the capital spend ramps up in later years. But we will continue to give expert support to councils to tackle any delivery blockers so we deliver these vital projects quickly.'
