Government considers scrapping £15m culture and investment support

The government is proposing to cancel a £15m package to support culture, heritage and investment projects in the region, as it looks to ensure that ‘investment is focused on the growth mission’.

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the funding in the Spring Budget earlier this year, to provide £10m of funding to support culture and heritage projects, and £5m to drive inward investment in the region.

Rachel Reeves budget announced today that the government is “minded to cancel unfunded Levelling Up Culture and Capital Projects, and the West Midlands culture and inward investment funding” but it “will consult with potential funding recipients before making a final decision”.

The budget confirmed that the West Midlands Combined Authority will receive the first integrated settlement from the government, giving Mayors control over funding in a single flexible pot.

Next year settlements for the West Midlands and Greater Manchester will have a single pot of funding with a single outcomes framework to support the MCAs to deliver growth. Both will receive greater flexibility and funding with the Connect to Work employment programme, a scheme matching people with disabilities or health conditions into vacancies and supporting them to succeed in their roles.

The Brierley Hill to Wednesbury metro extension was mentioned by Reeves in her speech as securing part of £1.3bn worth of funds to improve transport across city infrastructure.

An extension to the Innovation Programme, a scheme designed to boost the growth of regional clusters of excellence in Health, med, and clean technology, will also benefit the region.

It was confirmed that HS2 Phase One will reach Euston, as the government promised to fund tunnelling work to the central London terminus.

A plan to “get a grip of HS2” had already been unveiled by transport secretary Louise Haigh who launched an independent review into HS2’s spiralling costs to “bring the project back on track”. Bek Seeley has now been appointed to chair the Euston Housing Delivery Group, to drive forward an ambitious housing and regeneration initiative for the local area.

To drive the ‘Modern Industrial Strategy’, long-term funding will be provided into ‘growth-driving sectors’ including £975m for the aerospace sector in the East Midlands, South West and Scotland over five years, more than £2bn over five years to support the automotive sector in the West Midlands and North East, and up to £520m for a new Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund.

Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), said: “My goals are simple – real jobs, affordable homes, economic growth and better public transport for the people of the West Midlands.

“Today’s budget will help deliver those local priorities and is great news for the West Midlands, helping us build a solid platform for future growth across our region.

“It will provide money to improve and protect our public transport and for the construction of more affordable homes, echoing my own target to build 20,000 new social homes for those people who need them most.

“I will now work closely with Government departments and our local authorities on how best to use the resources available to secure the maximum benefit for the people of our region.”

James Dickens, Managing Director of Birmingham-based housebuilder Wavensmere Homes, said: “The economic cost of Reeves’ ‘balancing the books’ first Budget will be felt by the pockets of all those looking to move onto or up the property ladder, and by the housebuilders vying to deliver energy-efficient new homes.

“The £500m fund for an initial 5,000 extra council houses is certainly needed. However, Angela Rayner’s broader ‘£1bn council housing revolution’ could play into the hands of the increasingly powerful land-rich PLC housebuilders. Meanwhile, planning and pre-construction issues continue to negatively affect the supply of new homes, with as few as 135,000 expected to be built this year.

“Constructing 300,000 new homes per year remains a pipedream! The Chancellor and the Deputy Prime Minister should be finding ways to assist housebuilders with delivering the Future Homes Standard and Biodiversity Net Gain legislation, to counteract the cost burden being passed onto the consumer.”

Paul Bassi, director of Asha’s Restaurant & Cocktail Bar in Newhall Street, Birmingham, said: “The help offered to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on business rates is completely outweighed by the increase in the minimum wages and Employers’ NI.

“All of which will result in increased prices, meaning inflation, leading to higher interest rates. Less investment will mean fewer jobs meaning lower taxation raised. Reduced profits will also mean less tax raised.

“The IHT changes will result in fewer businesses being handed down from generation to generation, and business taking short term, and non-generational/long term decisions.

“I predict this will mean a lot of talented people moving abroad – making those countries more prosperous.”

Mitchell Barnes, CEO of RYSE 3D said: “It’s a budget that unfortunately I think we were all expecting and has done little to reassure businesses that Labour understands what the economy is all about.

“We’re a high-tech company, who export globally and have created 25 jobs – we should be the poster boy for what ‘growth’ looks like, yet I find myself this afternoon questioning whether the Government actually wants firms like RYSE 3D based here.

“There’s no question we will succeed, and we will grow, but it will be despite policy, tax rises and worker reforms, which will shackle employers and force us to consider investment and recruitment decisions going forward.

“The ‘working person’ line really infuriates too. Like so many entrepreneurs across the country, I work probably 70-hours plus per week looking to grow the company and create employment for people in places I call home. It’s bloody hard work, but I want us to be a company that is the best in the world, so I find it ridiculous that you are punished for being aspirational.

“The Capital Gains Tax increase will simply turn future entrepreneurs off, there is no question about that. Where is the incentive to take risk, where is the incentive to put so many hours into growing something, where is the incentive for growth Mr Starmer?”

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