Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a new £4bn “levelling up fund” to pay for projects chosen by local areas around the country.
Delivering his spending review to the House of Commons, Mr Sunak said the new scheme would “fund the infrastructure of everyday life” as part of Boris Johnson’s agenda of improving standards of living in disadvantaged areas around the country.
But Labour denounced the scheme as “the centre handing over support in a very top-down manner”.
Mr Sunak said that local areas will be able to bid for funds to build the facilities most wanted by local people, such as transport improvements, better shopping streets, libraries, museums or galleries.
“For many people, the most powerful barometer of economic success is the change they see and the pride they feel in the places we call home,” he said.
“People want to be able to look around their towns and villages and say ‘This place is better off than it was five years ago’.
“For too long, our funding approach has been complex and ineffective. And I want that to change.”
The Levelling Up Fund will be jointly administered by the Treasury, Department for Transport and Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, taking a “new holistic place-based approach to the needs of local areas”, he said.
All projects to be funded must have “real impact”, be deliverable before the next election in 2024, and must command local support, including from their MP, said Mr Sunak.
“This is about funding the infrastructure of everyday life,” said the chancellor. “A new bypass, upgraded railway stations, less traffic, more libraries, museums and galleries, better High Streets and town centres. This government is funding the things people want and places need.”
But shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said that the scheme “involves MPs going to ministers to beg for support for their areas, rather than that change being driven from local communities”.
She told MPs: “So much for taking back control. This is about the centre handing over support in a very top-down manner.”
