West Midlands Mayor condemns Levelling Up funding decisions

The Mayor of the West Midlands has criticised yesterdays Levelling Up funding announcement and called for powers to be devolved quicker.

Taking to Twitter, Tory mayor Andy Street said London civil servants making local decisions is “flawed” and he “cannot understand” why the funding was “not devolved for local decision makers to decide on what’s best for their areas”.

The West Midlands has been allocated more than £155m from the £2.1bn funding pot – funding which Street says is “of course welcome”, but could not understand why the majority of bids were rejected.

Whilst the region is in negotiations with the government over the Trailblazer Devolution Deal and Midlands Rail Hub, Street says this should not stop the West Midlands from receiving a larger share of the £2.1bn put for its “most deprived areas”.

He believes that the government however has overlooked the achievements of the region, such as the recent Commonwealth Games and Coventry City of Culture and that this is another example of why “Whitehall’s bidding and begging bowl culture is broken”.