Levelling Up funding to wait for spending

Torridge District Council has said it will not spend the new funds until 2024

Torridge in Devon has received a share of the £400m Levelling Up funding but will wait until March before the process of how to spend it begins.

Leader of Torridge District Council Councillor Ken James (Ind, Milton and Tamarside) said there was no opportunity to move it forward.

He said there would be a year between the initial announcement and the formal process beginning.

The money was announced in spring this year and would be used for 20 deprived communities.

The Levelling Up funding has been described as a chance to identify ways of growing the local economy and priorities for regeneration, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

Councillor Ken James said, “Officers have an enormous amount of work to do and we need to consider that as members about how we go forward. To lose this amount of money would be criminal if our officers are tied up with other stuff. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

He added that he had a “warm and receptive” first meeting with levelling up minister Jacob Young and Torridge MP Sir Geoffrey Cox.

There would be plans for officers to work with representatives from the education, business and the agricultural sectors alongside government ministers, he added.

'Transformative opportunity'

He said that everything would be data led.

In a motion to the council, Councillor James Craigie has asked if £15,000 could be used to promote heritage tourism.

After the announcement of the money to Torridge in March, Torridge MP Sir Geoffrey Cox said: “This represents an unprecedented transformative opportunity for Torridge and I am delighted that the representations I have made to the Secretary of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer about the vital importance of the levelling up programme to Torridge have been listened to".