Town halls in the North East have spent £2.1m of public money on consultants to help them bid against each other for money from the flagship £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund.
An investigation by The Northern Agenda politics newsletter lays bare the absurdity of the country’s ‘begging bowl’ funding culture as local authorities spend as much as £1.3m each on outside experts to improve their bids for regeneration cash. At least £23.4m has been paid by councils across the country to consultants, with £2.1m paid out by leaders in the North East, despite many areas being among the poorest in the country.
The majority of the money spent on consultants did not even result in successful bids, Freedom of Information Act requests sent to local authorities reveal, including £2.69m on “doomed” round two bids which were never going to succeed due to councils having already received money in round one.
