Michael Gove has defended giving more levelling up money to the south-east of England than the north-east in the latest funding allocation.
The levelling up secretary has announced which local projects have won a share of a £2.1bn fund. He said the north was getting more per head of population and some parts of the south needed investment.
Labour claimed north-east England was “one of the big losers” from a funding model it says is unfair.
A total of 111 areas across the UK have been awarded money from the second round of the government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The Eden Project in Morecambe, Lancashire, will get £50m to help regenerate a derelict site on the seafront into an eco-tourism attraction. There will also be a £50m grant to build a new direct train service linking Cornwall’s largest urban areas.
But London boroughs will get more than both Yorkshire and the north-east of England.
Mr Gove argued the north of England and Wales would receive more per head of population. He also said there were parts of southern England such as the Kent coast which had “real deprivation” and needed the extra investment.
Labour has argued the money does not make up for past cuts made by Conservative governments.
Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said: “It takes an extraordinary arrogance to expect us to be grateful for a partial refund on the money they have stripped out of our communities.” She also criticised the funding model, saying it was wrong to create winners and loser, and accused ministers of “playing favourites” with projects.
“I think this is the wrong way to go about allocating funding.” she told BBC Breakfast. Ms Nandy said her party would not cancel the projects if it got into government, but would end the “competitive-style bidding” process.
The idea of “levelling up” – or reducing regional inequality – was a key part of Boris Johnson’s 2019 election campaign. Its aim was to close the gap between rich and poor parts of the country by improving services such as education, broadband and transport.
Mr Sunak’s own constituency of Richmond, in North Yorkshire, will get £19m to develop the Catterick Garrison town centre.
The London Borough of Camden – where Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has his constituency – will receive £7m for cycling and walking infrastructure and local GP services.
Other projects set to get funding include:
>> £50m for Crossrail Cardiff – a new train line between Cardiff Bay and Cardiff Central Station
>>> Nearly £27m for a roll-on, roll-off ferry for Fair Isle in Shetland
>>> £40m for a carbon-neutral education campus in Blackpool town centre
>>> £20m to go towards the regeneration of Gateshead Quays, including a new arena, exhibition centre and hotels
>>> £5.1m to build new female changing rooms in 20 rugby clubs across Northern Ireland
>>> Just over £19m to improve public spaces in Hackney Central, east London
>>> £45m to help the Port of Dover operate more efficiently, including adding more border control points
Conservative party campaign headquarters have denied reports they have told MPs in marginal seats to stop using the phrase “levelling up” due to concerns the public do not know what it means.
A Conservative source told the BBC that MPs had “been told the precise opposite” and had instead been told how best to use the phrase based on the party’s opinion research.
The BBC has been told that, for example, MPs have been told not just to talk to constituents about how much money has been spent, but instead to talk about specific things that have changed for their area.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said the allocation of levelling up funding should be “locally led by evidence” of where investment is needed rather than “based on costly competitive bids between areas”.
“This is not a sustainable approach to economic development or public service delivery,” said Kevin Bentley, chairman of the LGA’s People and Places Board.
He also warned fulfilling projects had become more challenging due to rising inflation and costs.
Zoe Billingham of the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank also criticised the strategy. “Basically what we’ve seen is [local authority] budgets being slashed and then government handing some back out and making the ultimate call on where that money is being spent,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.