What assessment has the Minister made of the impact that round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund will have on transforming town centres?
Any funding is welcome news for the local authorities that were successful in this round of the Levelling-Up Fund.
However, Wales remains worse off under the UK Government’s Levelling-Up agenda and the approach taken to this Fund has pitted local authorities against each other in a competitive process.
Flintshire, Merthyr Tydfil and Newport will not receive any funding from any of the Levelling-Up Fund rounds, while huge amounts of time and resources have been wasted on unsuccessful bids at local authorities across Wales.
Decision-making delays have put additional pressure onto local authorities and exposed projects to rising inflation and very challenging deadlines. This is having consequences on delivery, value for money and economic impact.
It is unacceptable that the UK Government is running a number of programmes, including the Levelling-Up Fund, in devolved areas without any meaningful engagement or partnership with the Welsh Government and without the scrutiny of the Senedd.
It has been pointed out on numerous occasions by cross-party groups and independent think-tanks that this approach carries risks around duplication, blurred accountability, fragmentation of the funding landscape and poor value for money.
In contrast, through our Town Centre Position Statement we have set out a well-developed vision for the future of our towns and cities. This is supported by our Transforming Programme, a cohesive package of interventions, including £125m of grant and loan funding over the last three years.
Developed in partnership with Local Authority partners, the key elements of this ‘place-making’ approach include community involvement, well-being, enhancement of existing spaces and maintaining the unique identity of places.