Glasgow MPs have slammed the Government after a minister suggested that areas which received round one Levelling Up funding were prevented from getting funding in the second round.
Conservative Levelling Up minister Dehenna Davidson said in a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday evening that when allocating the second fund, ministers "took account of which local authorities had received funding in the first round, noting that that would help to maximise the geographic spread of investment across rounds one and two."
Glasgow South West MP Chris Stephens said Davidson's words showed that the Levelling Up fund was "deeply tainted" while Glasgow North East MP Anne McLaughlin called the process "a scandal".
The debate on the Levelling Up Fund Round Two had been called by SNP MP McLaughlin.
At the start of the debate she accused the Government of "changing the rules at the eleventh hour."
She said: "Glasgow submitted seven bids to the second round, many of which would have helped to redevelop some of the most deprived communities in Scotland.
"Officers and councillors spent months preparing the bids to give our communities the best possible chance of securing funding, and the latest estimates are that around £500,000-worth of officer time went into them.
"It was a complete waste of effort and a complete waste of the energy, skills and knowledge that Glasgow City Council professionals and councillors alike poured into the bids.
"It was waste... [because] it was not possible for them to be successful as the Government changed the rules at the eleventh hour."
Davidson later said: "During the final stage of the assessment and decision-making process, Ministers from my Department, the Department for Transport and His Majesty’s Treasury met to agree the final list of successful bidders.
"Again, we noted that the value of even the shortlisted bids was far in excess of the £2.1 billion available and, unfortunately, difficult decisions would therefore be needed.
"To achieve that, Ministers took the following sequential decisions. They took account of which local authorities had received funding in the first round, noting that that would help to maximise the geographic spread of investment across rounds one and two."
Stephens said after the debate: "As my colleagues Anne McLaughlin and Alison Thewliss teased out in the debate, the Minister's response clearly shows that the Levelling Up Fund decision making is now deeply tainted.
"The astonishing admission that Ministers decided at the end of the process to take out local authorities who had received funding in Round 1, means that Glasgow didn't stand a chance, no matter the quality of the bids.
"Such a move is deeply disrespectful to Council officials and Councillors who put up so much time and effort to put bids together.
"It is little wonder that Levelling Up is viewed by many as pork barrel politics."
A government spokesperson said: “Since the launch of the Levelling Up Fund, we have provided more than £3.8 billion of funding to support over 200 projects that will benefit millions of people across the whole United Kingdom.
“Our decision making criteria, published last year, made clear that ministers could take into account other investment in local areas, including grants from the first round of the Fund, to encourage a spread of funding across more areas. Only when all bids had been received, and their quality known, could decisions be taken to achieve this.
“In this round, we received over 500 proposals with a total value of £8 billion and our aim was spread opportunity from our £2.1 billion of funding as far as possible.
“There will be a further round of the Levelling Up Fund. Before this launches, we will support those bidders who were unsuccessful as we did in the first round, including by providing feedback, to refine their proposals and prepare for the next round.”
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