Levelling up: Process an unmitigated disaster says Mayor of London

The Mayor of London is worried about "levelling down" in London

The process of who receives money as part of the government's levelling up policy was "an unmitigated disaster", London's mayor has told MPs.

Speaking at the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities committee hearing, Sadiq Khan said "levelling up adds little value to London communities".

The comments come a year after the levelling up White Paper was published.

The policy aims to close the gap between parts of the UK by improving transport, education and broadband.

However, the government has defended the policy, saying "not everything can be decided in the local town hall or by the local mayor".

Mr Khan has previously warned against "levelling down" in the capital after the government's White Paper specifically excluded London from the levelling up fund for research and development, education, and arts and culture.

The Levelling Up Fund awarded £1.7bn to projects in October 2021 and another £2.1bn in January 2023.

The government have held two levelling up funding rounds with a total of £3.8bn allocated across the UK

"For the levelling up rounds one and two, we received four per cent in round one and seven per cent in round two," he said.

"We aren't seeing the benefits of the levelling up of our people or places."

The process and time needed for bid applications to be completed was also criticised by the mayor as he told MPs it cost on average £45,000 per bid.

He said London placed 49 bids, costing an estimated £2.2m, "for the privilege of having a begging bowl".

• What is levelling up and who is it helping?

• Levelling up 'a slap in the face' for London's youth

The Conservative mayor for the West Midlands, Andy Street, has also lashed out at the government, previously calling the process of allocating levelling up funds a "broken begging bowl culture".

London's mayor went on to talk about housing issues in the capital and reiterated his stance on advocating for rent freezes in the private market for the next two years.

"In the last year rents in London have gone up by 16% on average," he said.

"It's not just the porters, the cleaners or junior nurses priced out of our city, but senior nurses, doctors, teachers, police officers are having to commute an hour and a half each way to get to work."

The government previously defended the scheme, with Business Secretary Grant Shapps saying: "The truth is you've got to run a country somehow, you've got to have some kind of system in place.

"Not everything can be decided in the local town hall or by the local mayor," he told the BBC's Newscast podcast.

Mr Shapps said he agreed with the concept that "the closer you govern to people the better", but "in the end we are one nation, you've got to put the money somewhere, decisions have to be made somehow".

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