Norfolk’s levelling up woes highlighted in scathing report

The Conservative Party made a commitment at the last election to “level up every part of the United Kingdom”.

But evidence from Tory-run Norfolk County Council about problems with the process to secure money from the levelling up initiative has contributed to an influential parliamentary committee’s highly-critical report.

The Funding for Levelling Up report published by the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee criticised the funding, delivery, allocation and funding methods, and the competitive bidding processes involved in levelling up funds.

Southgate in King’s Lynn (Image: Matthew Usher)

While Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn got money in the January round of levelling up funding for the regeneration of the North Quay and Southgates areas, projects in Norwich and Hunstanton were rejected.

Previous analysis by the East of England Local Government Association (EELGA), which represents 50 councils in the region, said spending in the region lagged behind the national average and way below areas such as the East Midlands.

MPs, including Waveney’s Peter Aldous, have also raised concerns in recent months that the region is missing out.

Waveney MP Peter Aldous (Image: UK Parliament)

And, in its submission to the parliamentary committee, which was written in November last year, before January’s announcements, Norfolk County Council states: “For the 2022-2025 period Norfolk’s districts only have just under £500,000 per year to deliver levelling up activities.

“While this amount of money may help with ‘pride in place’ initiatives, it will do little to address the deep-rooted economic challenges across the county. 

“For comparison, the county Norfolk is often compared to Cornwall (e.g. in its tourism offer), which received £132m for the three years, and York and Yorkshire collectively received £144.44m.

“Norfolk’s allocation is not commensurate with the challenges we face – as the fifth largest shire county, seventh largest by population – and the opportunities for growth that we can deliver.”

The council told the committee there had been no feedback on why bids for levelling up cash had been rejected and that tight bidding deadlines favoured areas which had the most experience and capacity in getting applications in, rather than those areas in most need.

The county council said small pots of money, with a short-term focus, were no substitute for proper, long-term funding of local authorities.

Clive Betts (Image: Press Association)

And Labour MP Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, said: “There is cross-party consensus in tackling the regional and local inequalities that are holding back communities across the country.

“But the complexity of the levelling up challenges mean they cannot be remedied by the government’s current approach of one-off short-term initiatives.

“The levelling up policy requires a long-term and substantive strategy and funding approach, elements this policy currently lacks.

“Without this shift, levelling up risks joining the short-term government growth initiatives which came before it.”

The committee’s report highlights that local authorities have seen revenue funding from central government significantly reduced since 2010.

It notes that levelling up funds generally do not replace grant funding because they are capital, not revenue, and cover specific projects rather than the priorities of councils.

Norfolk County Council’s County Hall headquarters in Norwich (Image: Mike Page)

Norfolk County Council highlighted how it had spent more than £100,000, including £14,000 of officer time, in putting bids together.

The report recommends a change in approach, so councils can use levelling up cash to use in the most effective way, rather than through a costly bidding process.

A spokesperson from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said: “Levelling up is a long-term programme of reform that sits at the heart of our ambition as a government.

“It is breathing life into long overlooked communities, whether it is record investment in town centres and high streets or devolving more money and power out of Westminster to the regions.

“Almost £10bn has been allocated from DLUHC since 2019 to support around 1,000 projects, in addition to the £7.5bn commitment to the nine city-based Mayoral Combined Authorities in England.

“We are continuing to work towards simpler funding processes to support local authorities and are currently reflecting on the lessons learned from the first two rounds of the Levelling Up Fund allocations to inform the design of Round 3.”