Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Metcalfe Excerpts

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ronnie Cowan (Inverclyde) (SNP)]

3. How much and what proportion of the £4.8 billion levelling-up fund has his Department allocated to local authorities since that fund was announced in October 2021.

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

4. How many areas have been allocated funding under the levelling-up fund.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Clarke]

Fond as I am of the hon. Gentleman, I will not give him the money directly, but we will deliver it by the end of the year.

[Stephen Metcalfe]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s answer, but can he confirm that levelling up is about need and not about geography, because while Essex as a whole may be seen as prosperous, there are pockets of deprivation that would greatly benefit from levelling-up funding?

[Mr Clarke]

My hon. Friend is exactly right: levelling up is all about pockets of need, wherever they occur in this country. I know that there are many pockets in the south of England that are deprived, and it is vital to get the message out across the House that levelling up is a Union-wide concept with benefits for every corner of the country from London to Leeds right up to the north of Scotland and to the west of Wales. It is a concept with applicability wherever there is need.