Money would have gone on 3 projects
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.
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.
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."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.
"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. 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.
"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.
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