Second round of levelling up funds discussed in Sandwell

Discussions over the second round of bidding into the levelling up fund took place at an economy, skills, transport and environment scrutiny board at Sandwell Council.

It was revealed that the council admitted they did not enter round one of bids for the levelling up fund, which sees local towns and cities secure Government cash for much-needed infrastructure projects.

The reason for this, according to Nicola Richards MP, West Bromwich East, who proposed a list of infrastructure projects the borough would benefit from, is that the council “did not know what they could spend the money on”.

The levelling up fund, worth £4.8 billion, will invest in local infrastructure. Although managed by national Government via the Treasury, the funds are available for bids across all four nations of the UK.

Neighbouring Birmingham City Council had successfully applied for funding for projects including renovations to Moseley Road Baths, Dudley Road, and the Birmingham Wheels site in Bordesley.

Speaking at the economy, skills, transport and environment scrutiny board on Monday night, Tony McGovern, director of regeneration and growth, said: “I think it’s fair to say that cities have done rather well in round one.

“In purely numerical terms, Birmingham received £52 million, Leicester £43 million, and Stoke-on-Trent received £36 million across quite a range of projects.

“Dudley, Sandwell, and Walsall did not apply for the scheme. The West Midlands Combined Authority were allowed one bid, that could be a £50 million transport scheme.

“So the command authority has submitted a bid to upgrade the metro depot in Wednesbury. It will mean investment within the borough and will also mean local job opportunities.

“That particular bid is not announced yet, so we don’t know if that has been supported or not by the government. They have yet to be decided.”

Mr McGovern said the second round of levelling up fund bids will not be announced until “some time during 2022”, according to intelligence from civil servants.

He also spoke about the requirements for allocation of levelling up funds.

He said: “The maximum number of bids we can apply for is three, as we have three MPs whose constituencies are fully in the borough. We can bid for either three £20 million projects, or two £20 million projects and a £50 million transport scheme.

“This is still a very draft piece of work. The long list being developed to put to councillors and MPs by our officers covers the broadest range.”

Mr McGovern said the bids require a ten per cent “match fund” from the council itself, existing budgets, or investment funding.

He also said that the council had received an additional £125,000 of “capacity funding” to help build their bids, and confirmed all of this money will be used to employ a levelling up manager to co-ordinate the bids.

Little disgruntlement was shown from Labour councillors sat in the meeting over the misjudgement to apply for round one of the levelling up funding, with the exception of Cllr Hughes (Labs, Wednesbury North) who said he was “really bothered” that the council did not apply for funds. He said it gave members of the public “ammunition to throw at us”.

Nicola Richards MP, West Bromwich East, said Sandwell council have lacked the “foresight” to improve the borough.

She said: “This is this has been a problem for decades, but they just lack that kind of foresight and aspiration for the borough.

“The point is that the council didn’t need to be spending their own money on stuff right from the start. They should have been looking for investors or private investors and showcasing what Sandwell has got.

“We’ve always had high unemployment, we’ve always had inequalities in health, and we’ve always had poor attainment when it comes to education.

“I want us to be talking about why Sandwell, and West Bromwich in particular, is a great place to either buy a home or invest in a business. You’re not living in Birmingham – but you’re right next to it.

“For a young person, it’s a great place to invest in property. It’s a nice place to live where you’ve got family you know, I want us to be talking about all these things. We’re less than half an hour away from Birmingham International – the gates to the rest of the world.

“You’d think [Sandwell Council] might be excited about being able to invest to solve some of these things but it’s irritating. I just think the councillors are lagging behind.”