Greater Manchester councils spent £1.1m on Levelling Up consultants

Greater Manchester's 10 councils spent more than £1.1m on consultants as part of the Levelling Up Fund bidding process, it has been revealed.

The authorities received about £60m in the latest round of funding.

Analysis by politics newsletter The Northern Agenda found Bolton spent the most on consultants, while Bury spent the least.

The government said the use of consultants was "a decision for individual councils".

In January, it was announced that more than 100 projects across the UK had been awarded a share of £2.1bn in the second round of Levelling Up funding.

The awards saw the north-west of England receive the most money, getting £354m.

A representative for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said it had provided "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 £20m to help councils develop bids," they said.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the analysis showed Bolton spent £276,563 on two unsuccessful bids, £125,000 of which was funded by a DLUHC grant, while the other councils spent:

Wigan's Haigh Hall was one of three projects in Greater Manchester to have been granted money, along with Oldham's Northern Roots park and Trafford's Partington Sports Village.

Wigan Council's director of growth and economy Aidan Thatcher said the Labour-led authority "sometimes need to use external consultants who are experts in their field" to ensure that it was "able to put together the highest quality bids with the best chances of succeeding".

He added that Levelling Up funding was a "fantastic opportunity" for councils to gather "additional investment".

Labour's Lisa Nandy, the MP for Wigan and shadow levelling up secretary, said the analysis had exposed "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," she said.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said the Levelling Up scheme was not the "required solution" and was "a politically motivated tool used by the Conservatives to send money to areas where they think they have a chance of winning at the next election, instead of sending it to where it is needed most".

MP Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrats' local government and housing spokesperson said Levelling Up was a "complete mess under the Conservatives".

She added that the "flawed" bidding process had led to authorities "spending ridiculous sums of money on consultancy fees to better their chances of a successful bid".

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