In the Spending Review, the Chancellor announced the results of the Round One bids to the Levelling Up Fund. £1.7bn has been committed from overall £4.8bn pot, or around a third of the total. We know that there were 105 successful bids from a total of 293 eligible bids (or 36% were successful).
Mutual Ventures' analysis shows how this figure breaks down, and which local authorities were successful. This includes how the funded projects were divided between the priority designations (Category 1-3) in England, published at the beginning of the process.
The table below presents the raw figures.
Key findings are:
73% of the funds were committed to projects England, 12% in Northern Ireland, 10% in Scotland and 5% in Wales.
A total of 105 projects were funded, 71 in England, 20 in Northern Ireland, 8 in Scotland and 6 in Wales.
In England, of the 71 funded projects, nearly half (46) were in areas designated as priority Category 1. Only 6 were Category 3.
Given this, what can we expect next?
Round One was designed for 'shovel-ready' projects, and launched with little notice, so HM Treasury will be pleased with the amount of funding committed. Perhaps we can expect another two rounds before the total is spent.
In England, there are 110 Category 1 local authorities, so less than half have been funded so far. It seems likely that remaining Category 1s have a high chance of success in subsequent rounds.
When will Round Two open? It's unclear but, given the requirement to spent the money within the parliament, there is no reason to hang around. Expect news soon and a window for applications of around three months. (Update on 27th October: Governance guidance says that Round Two will open in 'Spring 2022'.)
Many congratulations all the other local authorities that secured grants. The full list is published by HM Treasury here.
Read about how MV can support your local authority make a bid for Round Two of the Levelling Up Fund here, or watch our webinar here.
For more on MV's work on Levelling Up click here.