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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether local authorities were informed of the methodology for the decision-making process for selecting successful bids to Round 3 of the Levelling Up Fund before his Department's publication on 20 November 2023.

On 20 November it was announced that the third round of the Levelling Up Fund will invest £1 billion in 55 projects across Great Britain. This will build on the success of rounds one and two which saw £3.8 billion awarded to 216 projects across the UK.

Listening to feedback from parliamentarians and local government, we decided not to run an additional competition, instead drawing on the pool of existing bids submitted at Round 2 which we were not able to fund earlier in the year but were assessed as high quality and ready-to-deliver.

This new approach builds on the approach set out in the Funding Simplification Plan and is intended to maximise efficiency and reduce burdens on applicants.

The Secretary of State informed the LGA conference, in July, that Round 3 would take a new approach and in October confirmed the intention to announce ahead of the autumn statement.

I made an Oral Statement on the 20 November and further details on project selection are set out in our published methodology note. Following rounds 1 and 2 of the Fund, ministers and officials held feedback discussions with unsuccessful local authorities.

Before the announcement, officials from my department undertook appropriate due diligence to gauge the viability of the Round 3 selection.