This is the best summary I could come up with:
Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, said: “The levels of delay that our report finds in one of government’s flagship policy platforms is absolutely astonishing.
Boris Johnson made levelling up the guiding principle of his premiership after winning the 2019 general election on a promise to improve the lives of voters in left-behind parts of the UK.
The Conservatives had hoped to go into the next general election able to point to levelling up in action – but the PAC report said the government had been unable to provide “any compelling examples” to date.
The report said: “We found this astonishing given round 1 of the levelling up fund was awarded to ‘shovel-ready’ projects that were supposed to be completed and delivering for local people by March 2024.”
Henri Murison, chief executive of George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “When this fund was first announced, we raised concerns that the Treasury’s idea for a bidding process would be unnecessarily costly and time-consuming.
A spokesperson for the levelling up department said: “We’re proud that we’ve committed £15bn since 2019 to often-overlooked areas, agreeing historic devolution deals, and shifting power and money out of Westminster.
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