Levelling up funding for Portsmouth: Plea for longer-term funding rather than one-off grants to boost growth

The Funding for Levelling Up report criticises the use of ‘resource-intensive’ bidding processes and says levelling up is ‘unlikely to success’ unless there is a change of approach.

Despite Portsmouth being the seventh highest recipient of funding from the department, the select committee’s findings have been echoed by political leaders in the city.

The select committee report identifies a range of issues with the government’s policy, including the demands of bidding processes which can cost councils tens of thousands of pounds, and says its aims could fail unless changes are made.

‘The government’s current approach is characterised by one-off short-term initiatives and this will be insufficient if the geographic, economic, social and health inequalities are to be reduced and ultimately, overcome,’ it says. ‘To change this, the policy requires a long-term substantive strategy and funding approach, things this policy currently lacks.’

Committee chairman, MP Clive Betts, said there was cross-party consensus around tackling regional inequalities but that these ‘cannot be remedied by the government’s current approach of one-off short-term initiatives’.

‘The levelling up policy requires a long-term and substantive strategy and funding approach, elements this policy currently lacks,’ he said. ‘Without this shift, levelling up risks joining the short-term government growth initiatives which came before it.’

He added that the Department for Levelling Up was ‘primarily responsible’ and said there was a ‘lack of strategic oversight’.

His comments have been supported by the Lib Dem leader of Portsmouth City Council, councillor Steve Pitt.

‘It’s important to be able to take a long-term view and it does seem that it’s all been very rushed,’ he said. ‘There’s a lack of clarity over what the government wants to achieve and that’s not helpful.

‘We’ve found that you have got to have off-the-shelf proposals ready for these bids and that holds back your ability to do things over a longer period of time, particularly in regeneration.’

Almost £88m has been awarded to the city council by the department, including £56m through the Transforming Cities Fund and £20m through the first round of the Levelling Up Fund, according to a University of West London study.

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A bid in the second round of the latter fund announced earlier this year failed, prompting criticism from Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan. A third round is expected later this year.

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Mr Morgan said the select committee’s report showed ‘the extent of the Conservatives’ mismanagement’ of regional economic growth.

‘It is clear the government’s approach is focused on short-term political ambition, not a genuine desire to support communities,’ he said. ‘After years of neglect, it’s vital Portsmouth gets the investment it needs from the government to put the heart back into our city centre and boost the local economy.

‘Ministers must take a long-term approach to supporting prosperity across the whole of our city.’

A spokesman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities said: ‘Levelling Up is a long-term programme of reform that sits at the heart of our ambition as a Government. It is breathing life into long overlooked communities, whether it is record investment in town centres and high streets or devolving more money and power out of Westminster to the regions.

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‘Almost £10bn has been allocated from DLUHC since 2019 to support around 1,000 projects, in addition to the £7.5 billion commitment to the nine city-based mayoral combined authorities in England.

‘We are continuing to work towards simpler funding processes to support local authorities and are currently reflecting on the lessons learned from the first two rounds of the Levelling Up Fund allocations to inform the design of round 3.’