Labour’s Council Leader Chris Read has written to local MPs John Healey and Alexander Stafford seeking urgent assurances from the government about funding for Dinnington and Wath after it emerged that no councils anywhere in England, Wales or Scotland received Levelling Up Funding in both rounds 1 and 2.

No indication was ever given to councils that if they had secured funding in the first round they would be ineligible in the second, leaving authorities like Rotherham pursuing bids in good faith that were doomed to fail.

The government’s published lists of successful bids indicate that 86 local authorities including Rotherham received funding in the first round announced last year. A further 110 councils were successful in second round bids announced last week. Not a single English, Welsh or Scottish council appears in both lists.

Last week it was reported that the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Michelle Donelan MP, had privately admitted to a “rule” that the government had instigated: councils that had been successful in round one were automatically ruled out from being awarded funding in round two.

Then yesterday (January 23rd), the Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison reportedly told the Levelling Up, Communities and Housing Committee that ministers did indeed change the rules after applications had been received.

Rotherham’s round two bid would have brought nearly £20 million of investment into the centres of Wath and Dinnington. Wath Library would have been rebuilt, with a burnt out building demolished, new shop space created and the markets upgraded in Dinnington – plans that now remain unfunded.

Cllr Read said;
“The Tories must come clean about this scandal. They have encouraged councils like ours to submit bids, spending public money in the process, and then quietly rigged the rules so we could not possibly be successful. They told people in Dinnington and Wath that there was money available – and then ensured that there wasn’t. Even when they announced the winning bids they still couldn’t admit the truth. Remarkably they just seemed to be hoping that no one would notice. Conservative MPs including Alexander Stafford tried to blame everyone else for not getting the money, but it’s now clear that all those excuses were false; their own ministers had decided it didn’t matter how strong the bid was, they were never going to fund it anyway.”

He added;
“We need to know who made this decision and why they chose to cover it up. How widely was this policy discussed within the Conservative Party? Surely all their MPs weren’t oblivious? And critically what they are now going to do to deliver the funding that we need?”