A group of MPs is calling for an overhaul of the Levelling Up funding system so that England’s ‘left behind neighbourhoods’ have better access to funding and more control over how money is spent.

Among their recommendations is for an end to competition for grants among charities and community groups, so that money is instead allocated to areas of disadvantage on a non-competitive basis.

Funding also needs to be longer term and flexible to allow charities and community groups to work together to decide how best to meet local needs.

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for left behind neighbourhoods warns that action is needed to reduce inequality following “many years” of government programmes failing to recognise “the scale of the challenges faced by these neighbourhoods”.

MPs warn that the most disadvantaged areas “have historically missed out on their fair share of funding”, due to a lack of community support networks and experience to successfully bid for grants.

To counter this Levelling Up “funds should be allocated to them on a non-competitive basis, with a portion dedicated to building community capacity for the future”.

“Another advantage to this approach would be the possibility of longer-term funding strategies in any given place, creating the conditions for more predictable and stable local development over longer timescales,” states the APPG, in their report A Neighbourhood Strategy for National Renewal.

“Funds would be more flexible, allowing local actors to address the specific needs of ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods more effectively.”

Big Local

Among those giving evidence to the APPG was Barbara Slasor from Gaunless Gateway Big Local, a partnership of community groups in Bishop Aukland.

She says that local organisations can be more effective if they work together rather than compete for funding.

“There's a lot of competition between voluntary, statutory, even private organisations for funding,” she told MPs.

“I've got some really good examples of where five organisations were working in silo, and our residents have actually brought them all under one roof around the table and all singing from the same hymn sheet, even though they're coming from slightly different backgrounds or agendas and funding regimes.”

The APPG warns that 225 neighbourhoods ranked in the 10% most deprived areas in England are classed as being ‘left behind’. More than 2.4m people live in these areas, around 4% of the population.

As well as ending competition for funding in these areas, MPs ant to see power around Levelling Up money devolved from central government to local areas.

“We welcome the government’s commitment to levelling up, said APPG co-chair and Conservative MP for Sedgefield Paul Howell,

“But the programme needs to support ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods by design rather than chance, account for changing economic circumstances, and ensure a redistribution of power and funding, if we are to see these neighbourhoods become less left behind over the next ten to twenty years.

“Without corrective action, levelling up will not make a difference in the areas that need it most.”

Kingston-Upon-Hull North’s Labour MP and APPG co-chair Diana Johnson added: “So far, the government’s approach has not sufficiently recognised the scale of the challenge in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, nor does it acknowledge the innovative and community-led approaches our inquiry has found are most likely to make a difference in these places.

“In fact, the design of levelling up policies and funding pots risks overlooking the specific needs of these neighbourhoods, and could even produce worse outcomes in the very places levelling up is supposed to help.

“To be successful and sustainable, levelling up must reflect local needs and circumstances – it can’t be something that is ‘done to people’, with decisions over investment and priorities made by Whitehall, or indeed the town hall, and simply imposed on communities.”

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