Tory mayor condemns ‘broken begging bowl culture’ of Sunak’s levelling up policy – as it happened

5.21pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, has delivered a damning assessment of the way the government administers its levelling up fund. He was speaking as the government announced how 111 communities would receive funding worth a total of £2.1bn from the fund. This is the second round of awards from the fund, which is worth £4.8bn in total. Echoing Labour criticisms of the way local authorities are forced to bid for money from central government, Street said today’s announcements showed “why Whitehall’s bidding and begging bowl culture is broken, and the sooner we can decentralise and move to proper fiscal devolution the better”. (See 3.11pm.) Labour said the fund was “in chaos” because of payment delays and allegations of “favouritism”. (See 9.15am.)

• Rishi Sunak has suggested the government cannot afford any immediate tax cuts, saying people are “not idiots” and understand what is unaffordable.

• Sunak has been criticised for taking a domestic flight in an RAF jet for the third time in 10 days.

• The RMT has received a fresh offer from train operators, the union said, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the long-running pay dispute.

Updated at 5.22pm GMT

5.08pm GMT

This is from Rob Parsons of the Northern Agenda newsletter.

Another map to ponder as we digest the Levelling Up Fund allocations

Of the 74 successful English bids that can be matched to a particular constituency, 50 are currently held by Conservative MPs and 23 by Labour

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— Rob Parsons (@RobParsonsNorth) January 19, 2023