Paul Tinnion says photo opportunities trump real need in funding bids, Jonathan Hollow points out that supposed levelling up funds are going to prosperous areas, Toby Milner-Gulland sees no substance in levelling up pledges and Andrew Lightbown says it would take more money to truly address inequality
The leader of Durham county council, Amanda Hopgood, wonders how a historic castle in Kent can qualify for levelling up funds, but a deprived area of County Durham does not (Report, 3 April). In the 1980s and 90s, when I was involved, as Gateshead council’s chair of housing, in “beauty contest” bids to the then Tory governments, I came to the conclusion that bids were assessed not so much on the published criteria but on a “possible photo opportunity” index. So there’s the answer: being seen at a Kent castle easily trumps traipsing up to a deprived area of County Durham. Allocating limited funds in this way is a sure sign that what matters is not levelling up, but pretending to.
Paul Tinnion
Whickham, Tyne and Wear
• Well done to the Guardian for revealing the electoral antics wrapped underneath a banner of “levelling up”, and related policy fictions. Here in sunny Whitstable, our beachside tennis courts are being upgraded with the help of £14,000 from the “shared prosperity fund” – one of the main policy vehicles for allegedly “levelling up” the poorest parts of the country. Meanwhile, just up the road, the upgrade to our Brenley Corner roundabout is touted as part of “Network North”, a confection for which “spurious” is far too weak a word.
