525 bids have been received for a share of the government’s
flagship £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund to support town centre
regeneration, local transport schemes and cultural and heritage
projects across the UK.
The Levelling Up Secretary announced the impressive
response to the Levelling Up Fund’s second round as he visited
his department’s second headquarters in Wolverhampton.
The Levelling Up Secretary met staff at the i9 Building and was
later joined by West Midlands Mayor on a walking tour of
Wolverhampton city centre before going to the Commonwealth Games
Cycling Trials at the city’s West Park.
More than £235 million from the first round of the Levelling Up
Fund has already been invested in 98 projects across the
UK. The Department for Levelling, Housing and Communities
will now work through the second-round bids before announcing the
successful applications.
Levelling Up Secretary of State said:
“I was pleased to work from our fantastic offices in
Wolverhampton, where we are supporting jobs, growth and
opportunity, both in this great city and across the West
Midlands, and it was brilliant to see first-hand the boost that
the Commonwealth Games is bringing to the region.
“We are continuing to deliver for communities across the
United Kingdom by investing in projects. It’s exciting to see so
many communities respond to the second round of our Levelling Up
Fund with plans to improve their local areas.”
Levelling Up funding aims to boost local areas – whether through
reviving a town centre, improving transport in hard-to-reach
areas, or restoring historic buildings. In Northern Ireland,
a range of public and private organisations are eligible to bid
to reflect a different local government landscape. In Great
Britain eligibility is restricted to councils (and where they
exist combined authorities, mayoral combined authorities, and the
GLA).
Previous successful Levelling Up Fund bids include the
Wolverhampton City Learning Quarter which received £20 million of
Levelling Up funding. This project will see the co-location of
the City Centre College Campus, the modernisation, reconfigured
and accessible Central Library, as well as centralised and
expanded Adult Education provision, boosting the City Centre and
helping skill levels and productivity.
The opening of DLUHC’s Wolverhampton office in 2021 was a
milestone and marked the first new government HQ outside of
London as part of the wider government plan to move 22,000 roles
out of Westminster and increase diversity of voices in the Civil
Service. DLUHC currently has 256 people based at the
Wolverhampton office.
