York gets nothing from the levelling up fund – PM’s constituency is only North Yorkshire winner

York has missed out on cash from the levelling up fund.

And the only North Yorkshire bid to receive any cash has been criticised – as it is in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s constituency.

The Government has announced £2 billion for more than 100 projects across the UK as round 2 of the levelling up fund today. But the South East of England has been given almost twice as much funding as Yorkshire.

The PM’s constituency of Richmond was given almost £20 million in funding to transform Catterick Garrison town centre.

York has missed out for a second time. It failed in its bid for three regeneration projects in round one of the funding in 2021, although City of York Council said “it received positive feedback from central government”.

And the city has been given nothing again this time round.

For round two, the council submitted these bids:

• £20m of funding to revitalise the city centre, as part of three linked projects. This included £10m to deliver the new Castle and Eye of York public realm as part of the Castle Gateway regeneration, and a further £10m for Parliament Street and Coney Street and the Riverside Quarter developments.

• a transport bid to help enhance the Haxby Railway station project. The bid sought to secure £5m to improve active travel links and accessibility to the new station for surrounding communities.

In North Yorkshire, councils had submitted bids to the Levelling Up Fund in August relating to reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality, cuts in congestion, supporting the economy and improving transport for passengers.

Bids including a £39.3m bid from the county council to improve access to Thirsk, Seamer and Scarborough stations.

Other bids to the fund awaiting decisions include a £19.9m plan to redevelop Malton station.

But only the Catterick regeneration won out.

Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “The North is getting roughly a third of the total amount for England, marginally below our first phase proportion.

“This is a long way off the radical economic transformation we were promised and will not make a material difference to closing the north-south divide in productivity.”