Greater Manchester councils spend £1.1 million on levelling up bids

An investigation by The Northern Agenda politics newsletter has found that at least £23.4m has been paid by councils across the country to consultants, with £1.1m paid out by leaders in Greater Manchester.

Despite the money paid out by councils on these bids, the successful allocations brought in almost £60m for the region in January.

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Wigan Council second highest spender

Wigan Council bid for improvements to Civic Square, shop fronts and Leigh Market (Image: Wigan Council)

Wigan Council spent the second highest figure on consultants, at £209,850. This was supported by a £125,000 grant from the government as the borough is categorised as a Tier 1 Authority in the Levelling Up agenda.

The Council was successful in receiving £20m for its redevelopment of Haigh Hall, but failed in it's £11.4m for Leigh Town Centre. It also failed in its bid for regeneration projects in Ashton town centre, but the constituency has since received £6.6m from the government's Spring Budget.

Aidan Thatcher, director of growth and economy at Wigan Council, said: “Levelling up funding is a fantastic opportunity for Local Councils to lever in additional investment to their local areas. Wigan Council was categorised as a Tier 1 Authority, which meant that central government has contributed £125,000 towards our funding bids, recognising the high demands on council resources. 

“To ensure that we are able to put together the highest quality bids with the best chances of succeeding, we sometimes need to use external consultants who are experts in their field. It is a testament to the quality of the bids submitted by Wigan Council that of the four bids submitted to the levelling up fund, two of those have been successful so far.”

The other Greater Manchester councils’ expenditure on consultants were:

The council was successful in securing £20m to redevelop Haigh Hall (Image: Wigan Council)

• Bolton - £271,563
• Tameside – £155,000
• Trafford -£132,131
• Oldham £131,596
• Manchester – £106,716
• Rochdale £97,052
• Bury – £40,135

Stockport and Salford have not provided figures at the time of writing.

Freedom of Information Requests were sent to 389 local authorities across Great Britain, 334 of which responded. A total of 283 confirmed that they made a combined total of 532 bids for £9.18 billion of funding, only £2.94 billion of which was awarded.

'Absurdity of Hunger Games-style bidding system

Lisa Nandy MP (Image: PA)

Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, said: “This investigation by the Northern Agenda exposes the absurdity of the government’s Hunger Games-style bidding system. Communities have to compete with one another for permission to do what will work for them, with councils forced to spend millions of pounds in the middle of a cost of living crisis in the process.

“Labour will put an end to this broken system. Through our Take Back Control Act we will undertake the biggest ever transfer of power out of Westminster, putting communities in control of their own destiny and giving local leaders the tools and backing to drive growth in their local economies, without having to go cap-in-hand to Whitehall.”

The majority of the money spent on consultants did not even result in successful bids, freedom of information acts sent to local authorities reveal, including £2.69 million on “doomed” round two bids which were never going to succeed due to councils having already received money in round one.

The failures of the current system have been criticised by all sides, including by the Government itself in the Levelling Up White Paper published a year ago. Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove says his department is reviewing the current bidding process and whether it can be streamlined.

As evidence of things changing, Ministers point to the recent devolution deals struck with the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands giving them a guaranteed £1bn devolved funding pot each to spend as they see fit.

A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “The use of consultants is a decision for individual councils – we provide clear, straightforward guidance to support those applying for the Levelling Up Fund.

“However, we recognise there are costs associated with bids which is why across both rounds we provided more than £20 million to help councils develop bids.”