Levelling up: Anger as Havant is snubbed in bid for cash to revamp Meridian Centre

Havant Borough Council’s bid on the second round of levelling up funding was declined earlier this week.

The bid would have focused on the town centre, specifically the repurposing of the Meridian Shopping Centre to ‘redefine the townscape’.

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In a tweet yesterday, Councillor Richard Kennett, member for Emsworth ward commented on Rishi Sunak’s constituency benefiting from the fund ‘to the tune of £19m’.

It read: ‘Havant unemployment rate is 160 per cent higher and child poverty 68 per cent higher than Richmond.’

Cllr Kennett added: ‘On paper at least it’s disappointing that an area like Havant hasn’t benefited from that funding when other areas, which appear to be more advantaged, such as his constituency, have got £19m.

‘I understand that it’s said there’s no input from members of parliament and it’s all done by civil servants in London I assume.’

‘It’s disappointing for the borough because we’ve got some of the most disadvantaged wards in the south and some of the most disadvantaged wards in England in areas of Leigh Park and Wecock.

‘We were hoping that the levelling up funding would regenerate the town and then the benefit of that would go across the borough more widely.’

Councillor Alex Rennie, leader of the council said the council would have ‘loved’ to receive the cash but he ‘always knew that it was a very competitive process’.

‘There were an awful lot of bids that were put in and clearly we were in the mix of everyone else and unfortunately we were not successful.

‘I haven’t had a huge amount of time to digest the bids – I don’t doubt that any other bid wasn’t worthy of getting it.

‘For us, that funding was very much a bonus but it doesn’t mean that we’re any less ambitious about the future of our town centre.

‘What we know we need to do is see how we can develop those ambitious plans without the need for government intervention.’

Portsmouth was also disappointed this week by being turned down by the government for a £40m city centre scheme.