Government accused of 'moving the goalposts' after Portsmouth excluded from levelling up funding

Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan has said the government ‘moved the goalposts’ after Portsmouth submitted its bid for levelling-up cash.

During a Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) select committee last week, Dehenna Davison MP confirmed councils would be excluded from the second round of bidding if they were successful in the first round.

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Portsmouth South was among those excluded after the Portsmouth North constituency received funding in the first round.

Stephen Morgan said: ‘It is now clear the government moved the goalposts long after Portsmouth submitted its bid for much-needed funding.

‘Investment in our city centre would have revitalised Portsmouth. The city put so much time, energy and money into the bid which the minister has now admitted we had no chance of winning.

‘Portsmouth people will rightly be outraged after so much of the community was involved in the process in good faith. The failure of investment by the government and the failure of leadership on the council is holding Portsmouth’s economy back, and letting our communities down.’

In response to the alleged failure of leadership in the city council, councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: ‘Stephen’s way of operating is to always look for other people to blame and we all live with that.

‘The bid was one where we worked very closely with Stephen, I think the people that put in a huge amount of work to support the bid and to support him will be really upset that their work hasn’t been valued by their MP.

‘He’s absolutely right that it’s a political decision and that it is being used to move money to predominantly Conservative areas.’

Portsmouth North MP and leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaun,t said the funding she secured will be spent on ‘a new passenger terminal at our commercial port, benefitting the whole city’.

‘We are also regenerating the lido and building the largest linear park in the UK at Hilsea Lines,’ she said.

‘These are areas that have needed investment and will transform the quality of life and opportunity in the north of the city.

‘I backed the second bid which didn’t get funds this time, however, the bid is not dead.’