Boris Johnson's flagship levelling up plan has been likened to the "Hunger Games", with struggling northern councils being forced to fight it out for Government cash.
The comments came as MPs debated the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, which promises to ''drive local growth and ensure everyone can share in the United Kingdom’s success', for the first time today. Wigan MP Lisa Nandy poured scorn over the Bill, saying it did little to reverse the decade of austerity endured by the region's local authorities.
And the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary blasted the Government's competitive approach to awarding funding via a number of special schemes, such as the towns fund, high street fund and shared prosperity fund.
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She said: "Billions of pounds have been squandered on ill thought out plans, forcing areas to compete over pots of money, small refunds for the money that has been stripped from us over a decade. This is not the Hunger Games, this is the future of our country, and it is no way to treat the people in it."
At the centre of the Bill, being put forward by Michael Gove, are 12 national “missions” covering everything from housing and education to transport and culture with targets for dramatic improvements by 2030.
But Ms Nandy argued that many of the missions were meaningless, as buried in the Bill is a clause which allows ministers to shift deadlines and rewrite aims.
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“The cat is out of the bag. Not only will they not back the country, but they won’t even back themselves, because in clause five of this Bill is a measure that allows the Government to tear these missions up at a whim, that entire levelling-up agenda, the promise on which they won the last general election made to the people of Britain, presumably when they fail to deliver every single one.”
Mr Gove brushed off the criticism, saying Labour was criticising while offering "nothing".
He said: "We have put forward proposals and indeed we are spending £4.8 billion pounds through the levelling up fund, similar sums through the UK shared prosperity fund - making sure that every part of our United Kingdom is firing on all cylinders. From Labour, nothing."
The debate came as a damning report from the cross-party Public Accounts Committee accused ministers of "gambling taxpayers' money on policies" which are "little more than a slogan".
The Tory chairwoman of the committee Dame Meg Hillier said: "Without clear parameters, plans or measures of success it's hard to avoid the appearance that government is just gambling taxpayers’ money. The nation is being squeezed harder than it has for decades - there is no more to throw away like this."
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