UK Inquiry Tracker

Supporting local economic growth

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 12 Jan 2022 Closed: 2 Sep 2022 Parliament page

Successive governments have tried to address regional economic disparities and raise productivity through a range of interventions, such as the £12 billion government committed to the Local Growth Fund between 2015-16 and 2020-21. In the 2020 Spending Review, and 2021 Budget, government reiterated its intention to “level up opportunity across … Read more

12 Recommendations

15 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 4 events

2 Sep
2022

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth report from Session 2022-23

8 Jun
2022

Report published

Fifth Report - Local economic growth

21 Apr
2022

Correspondence

Correspondence from Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport, re Supporting local economic growth, dated 30 March 20…

2 Mar
2022

Oral evidence

Supporting local economic growth

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

2 Mar 2022

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Supporting local economic growth

Bernadette Kelly CB · Department for Transport Jeremy Pocklington CB · Ministry of Defence Sarah Munby · Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Will Garton · Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Fifth Report - Local economic growth	HC 252	8 Jun 2022	27	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 results

5 Recommendation Accepted in Part

Fifth Report - Local economic grow…

It is unclear how the Department is reconciling tensions between devolved responsibilities and administering local...

It is unclear how the Department is reconciling tensions between devolved responsibilities and administering local growth funding on a UK-wide basis. Economic development is a devolved power but the Department is administering the Levelling Up and UK Shared Prosperity funds … Read more

Government Response

The department agrees, but disagrees with the conclusion. For LUF, at least 9% of the total allocation will be set aside for Scotland, 5% for Wales, and 3% for Northern Ireland, subject to a suitable number of high-quality bids coming forward. Officials established an Interministerial Group to discuss issues of mutual interest, and the inaugural meeting of the Interministerial Standing Committee was held.

HM Treasury

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15 Recommendation Accepted in Part

Fifth Report - Local economic grow…

We questioned the Department on the nature and timing of the role for Ministers in...

We questioned the Department on the nature and timing of the role for Ministers in making final decisions for the Levelling Up Fund.40 The NAO’s report explains that following an initial pass/fail gateway, officials scored and ranked bids against published … Read more We questioned the Department on the nature and timing of the role for Ministers in making final decisions for the Levelling Up Fund.40 The NAO’s report explains that following an initial pass/fail gateway, officials scored and ranked bids against published criteria and then passed a shortlist of the highest scoring bids to Ministers. Ministers then made final decisions, taking into account the scores as assessed by officials though the process allowed them some discretion in how bids met a pre-defined list of ‘other considerations’.41 The Department explained that Ministers made decisions about how much money to allocate; what score threshold to apply and what the balance of investment across the three themes of the Levelling Up Fund would be.42 We acknowledged that some decisions would always be taken subjectively by Ministers but wanted to understand how much discretion they had.43 We wanted to understand if Ministers had decided on the principles for awarding funding only after they knew who, from the 170 shortlisted bidders, would win and who would not as a result of those principles.44 HM Treasury told us after the evidence session that Ministers had seen a high level summary of all eligible bids prior to shortlisting but that they made decisions from a shortlist that had been locked down. The Department told us that none of the scores changed as a consequence of ministerial decision-making. It pointed us to the explanatory note which, it said, laid out the detail of how Ministers made their decisions.45 The explanatory note implies a single discussion in which Ministers discussed the shortlist and determined principles for award.46 However, the Department did not publish sufficient information for us to determine, as we would expect in the interests of openness and transparency, how much discretion Ministers had. For example, it did not publish lists of shortlisted or unsuccessful bidders, neither did it publish any information on how the Department had scored Show less

Government Response

The government defends its robust decision-making process and ministerial discretion for the Levelling Up Fund. However, it commits to providing information on the balance of successful and unsuccessful bids by theme and geography to enhance transparency regarding funding decisions, partially addressing the request for more published information.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 27 of 12 classified

Accepted 4

Accepted in Part 2

Acknowledged 15

Not Addressed 4

Rejected 2

Total 12 recs + 15 conclusions

Correspondence 1 letter

21 Apr 2022 Correspondence from Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport, re Supporting local economic growth, dated 30 March 2022

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