Most levelling up projects are not finished, years after funds were allocated, highlighting how ambitious Conservative promises of quick progress on regional equality have faltered. Data released under freedom of information laws and manually reviewed by the Guardian found 821 levelling up projects out of 1,347 were yet to be finalised as of May this year. Across the UK, 73 council areas that had a bid for a project accepted were yet to see a single one fully completed.
The Guardian has identified 59 projects that were completed since the data was collected. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have seen slower delivery in their levelling up projects, despite having fewer overall. North-west England and Yorkshire also had low project completion rates, but they were also the two regions allocated the most projects to begin with.
Boris Johnson’s government swept to power in 2019 after promising to revive left-behind towns and spread opportunity as part of a levelling up agenda headed by Michael Gove. With 57% of projects still unfinished, the figures show many communities are still waiting for those ambitions to become reality. The figures cover three of the main funds associated with the levelling up agenda: the Future High Streets Fund (launched in 2018), Town Deals (2019) and the Levelling Up Fund (2021).
The Future High Streets Fund was supposed to complete in March 2024, and the official deadline for spending all of the Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund money was March 2026. The Levelling Up Fund and Town Deals were consolidated into the Local Regeneration Fund under Labour, with a new deadline of March 2028. Labour has since also launched the Pride in Place programme.
It gives places longer-term funding, with local boards deciding how it is spent, rather than making councils compete for grants. Jack Shaw, the director of Groundwork Research, which supplied the data to the Guardian, said it showed a large gap between the intentions of levelling up and what had been delivered. He said: “Despite significant funding, too many one-off commitments have failed to translate into substantive improvements in communities or local economies.
Similarly, all eight projects funded in Leeds are yet to close. Five are in Morley: a refurbishment of Morley town hall, the establishment of a learning and skills centre, the station gateway transport scheme, a project to make the area greener and better connected, and the Heritage Investment Programme (which has only partly been completed). Two projects in Holbeck – a green housing retrofit and a local centre scheme – also remain incomplete, as does the St Matthew’s community centre and Old Box Office project.
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