COVENTRY City Council leader Coun George Duggins has hit out at the government after the city was snubbed for levelling up funding.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced the second round of awards from its Levelling Up Fund yesterday (January 19), with the city council submitting three bids totalling almost £58million.
Two of the bids were looking to help improve Foleshill and Hillfields, two of the city’s most disadvantaged areas, and another to help create a new Cultural Gateway into the city centre.
And Coun Duggins said he was angered that the majority of the funding has been allocated to London and the south east of England.
He added: “I have always been sceptical of the concept of Levelling Up as I felt that it was just a meaningless slogan and today’s announcement has confirmed that.
“We were told the concept was about bringing all areas into line so how can it be right that Coventry has been overlooked, like many other Midlands and northern towns and cities?
“Our region secured just 1.9 per cent of today’s levelling-up pot and the majority of the money has gone to London and the south east which we are meant to be levelling up with. How is that fair?
“After the first round of funding, the need of Coventry was recognised as we were moved from a category two area to the highest priority of category one, but still our bids have been rejected.”
Coun Duggins said the city council has received a government funding reduction of £110million a year since 2010.
“Let’s be clear, this is not new money they are awarding anyway. At best this money is a partial refund for the money we have lost and has been stripped out of our communities over the last 13 years.”
“The idea of levelling up was to reduce regional inequality but to continue to prioritise London and the south east beggars’ belief.”
Coventry Conservatives leader Coun Gary Ridley said the city has been ‘really fortunate’ to receive significant Government investment in recent years such as the City of Culture year, improvements to the public realm in the city centre, several new schools and improvements to transport infrastructure.
“None of them could have happened without support from Government. So I’m disappointed by this announcement but I’m not downbeat.
“What’s important now is to focus on the future and to try and understand why the Council’s bids failed this time round and learn lessons from this for the future.”
