Nottingham City Council spent more than £250,000 on unsuccessful bids for support from the ‘leveling up’ fund, according to new information.
The council announced in January that it had failed on all three of its bids last year.
A Freedom of Information request has shown the figure reflects the cost of consultants used to submit bids.
The levelling up fund was launched 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.
Leader of the Labour-controlled council David Mellen said half the costs involved in the bidding process were met from a Government grant.
But he has joined calls for changes to the levelling up fund which the city council ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with.
In January London mayor Sadiq Khan accused the Government of forcing councils to waste money bidding for cash when only one in five succeed.
West Midlands Conservative mayor Andy Street condemned the ‘begging bowl culture’ of central funding while Labour has branded the levelling up scheme a ‘Hunger Games-style contest where communities are pitted against one another’.
Nottingham East Labour MP Nadia Whittome said the system was ‘deeply flawed and extremely unfair.’
‘Councils are being forced to spend their already limited resources preparing bids, with no guarantee they will be successful.’
