Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they had a policy in place to allow only one bid per local authority area in Northern Ireland to be awarded funding in Levelling Up Fund Round 2; and whether that policy was in place elsewhere in the UK.
Bids were assessed against the criteria set out in the Levelling Up Fund prospectus to deliver a shortlist of the strongest bids. Ministers then followed the published decision-making approach outlined in section 3 and section 5 of the Levelling Up Fund technical note.
As set out in the published technical note, the shortlists in Great Britain and Northern Ireland were separate.
Ministers agreed to prioritise a fair spread of approved projects in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is explained in the explanatory note published on 19 January 2023.