Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, for what reason County Durham was not selected as a Priority Place for Levelling Up Fund Round 3.

For Round 3, funding was targeted to places assessed in need through the Levelling Up Needs metrics, which take into account skills, pay, productivity and health. These metrics draw on the extensive evidence base of what matters for levelling up, as set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, and represent our most up to date assessment of levelling up need. Further details of the selection methodology for Round 3 are set out in the published LUF R3 Explanatory and Methodology Note on Gov.uk.

County Durham has been awarded funding from multiple levelling up funds, including £146,000 from the Community Ownership Fund; £20 million from the Long-Term Plan for Towns; £836,000 from the Community Renewal Fund; £19 million from the Future High Streets Fund; £33 million from the Town Deal; £85,000 from the Levelling Up Parks Fund; and £30.8 million from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. They were also awarded £20 million from round 1 of the Levelling Up Fund for the Bishop Auckland project, and £1.9 million in round 2 as part of the Transport Decarbonisation in the North East project.