has today (Friday) written to
the Secretary of State for Levelling Up urging him to investigate
comments by former Chancellor , who boasted that while in
government he changed funding formulas to redirect taxpayers’
money from “deprived” areas to affluent Tory shires.
Sunak’s comments, revealed by the New Statesman today,
were made at a Conservative leadership hustings in Tunbridge
Wells, Kent, on 29 July.
In her letter to , the Shadow Levelling Up
Secretary, says:
“This is deeply concerning. The former Chancellor is admitting to
fixing the rules to funnel taxpayers’ money to affluent parts of
the country at the expense of areas he himself admits are
“deprived”.
“Public money should always be distributed fairly and spent in
areas where it is most needed. It is completely unacceptable for
ministers to allocate taxpayer funds in order to secure political
gain for themselves or their party.”
Warning of the urgent need to restore confidence in the
government’s awarding of public money, Lisa Nandy calls on the
Secretary of State to:
- Urgently investigate the changes to funding formulas that
is referring to; why those
changes were made; what justification was given for the
changes; and what impact assessment was made in advance of the
changes; and publish the findings of this investigation at the
earliest opportunity.
- Provide an update on the steps the Department has taken to
fix the problems identified by the Public Accounts Committee as
regards the fair allocation of taxpayer funds.
- Publish the measures that have been put in place to ensure
the award of funds from the second round of the Levelling Up Fund
is fair.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- Original story on Sunak’s
comments:https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1555475661917421568?s=20&t=XuZx4AkJZuL_Z2STHpsS2A
- The Public Accounts Committee has
said the Department for Levelling Up “has past form” on not being
“impartial” in the awarding of taxpayer funds:https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/171244/pac-highlights-past-form-at-dluhc-with-questions-over-award-of-levelling-up-funds/
- Full text of Lisa Nandy’s letter to
:
Dear Secretary of State,
I am writing to you in light of comments made by the former
Chancellor, MP, at a Conservative
leadership hustings in Tunbridge Wells on 29 July. In a video
published by the New Statesman, Mr Sunak boasts:
“I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make
sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because
we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the
funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone. I
started the work of undoing that.”
This is deeply concerning. The former Chancellor is admitting to
fixing the rules to funnel taxpayers’ money to affluent parts of
the country at the expense of areas he himself admits are
“deprived”.
Public money should always be distributed fairly and spent in
areas where it is most needed. It is completely unacceptable for
ministers to allocate taxpayer funds in order to secure political
gain for themselves or their party.
As the Public Accounts Committee has said, your department “has
past form with this”. In June, the Committee said it was
“unsatisfactory” that ministers finalised the principles for
awarding the first round of Levelling Up funds only once they
knew the identities of shortlisted bidders.
In November 2020, the Committee reported that the selection
process for awarding the Towns Fund had “not been impartial” and
they raised concerns about the lack of transparency over the
towns selected, and about the timing of ministerial input for
funding awards.
This is particularly important in light of the fact that the
application process for the second round of Levelling Up funds
closed just this week, and communities across the country are
anxiously waiting to hear if they have been successful.
Many of our most deprived communities – in urban, rural and
coastal areas – missed out in the first round, and they must have
absolute confidence that the process for awarding funds in this
second round is fair, transparent and untainted by political
bias.
I would therefore be grateful if you would:
- Urgently investigate the changes to funding formulas that
is referring to in his
comments on 29 July; why those changes were made; what
justification was given for the changes; and what impact
assessment was made in advance of the changes; and publish the
findings of this investigation at the earliest
opportunity.
- Provide an update on the steps the Department has taken to
fix the problems identified by the Public Accounts Committee as
regards the fair allocation of taxpayer funds.
- Publish the measures that have been put in place to ensure
the award of funds from the second round of the Levelling Up Fund
is fair; and confirm that unlike in the first round, ministers
have set the principles for awarding funds before they know the
identities of bidders.
It is vital for public confidence in your Department and in the
government more widely that the allocation of taxpayer funds is
both fair and seen to be fair. These steps will help ensure that
confidence can begin to be restored.
Yours Sincerely,
Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing &
Communities
