MAYOR DAN JARVIS: CHANCELLOR MUST ANSWER URGENT QUESTIONS ON LEVELLING UP FUNDS

Published 4 March 2021 at 1:41pm

Mayor of the Sheffield City Region, Dan Jarvis, has written to the Chancellor today (Thursday 4 March) demanding the Government answers urgent questions about how it has allocated funding for levelling up.

It comes after Budget documents showed Rishi Sunak’s Richmond constituency had been identified as ‘category one’ for support from the Levelling Up Fund, with Barnsley and Sheffield placed in ‘category two’. Poorer areas like Halton (Liverpool City Region) and Salford (Greater Manchester) were also placed in the lower priority group for support.

He warned Ministers were in danger of ‘a repeat of the Towns Fund fiasco’, which was criticised by the Public Accounts Committee for a lack of transparency and clear rationale in its allocation.

Dan Jarvis said:

“It beggars belief that the Chancellor’s relatively affluent Richmond constituency is considered to be in greater need of levelling up investment than Barnsley and Sheffield.

“It’s yet again proof that this Government’s actions are levelling South Yorkshire down – pushing our region and some of the poorest places in the North to the back of the queue for investment.

“I’m pushing the Chancellor and the Treasury to publish the allocation formula immediately. They must dispel any notion that this is a repeat of the Towns Fund fiasco.”