We queried why the Department had required a new tier of governance—Town Deal Boards—to be set up, rather than use existing governance structures to plan and implement the Towns Fund at the local level. The Department explained that existing structures, such as mayoral combined authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships, were not appropriate for overseeing support and interventions for individual towns. It said that government’s original rationale for the Towns Fund was to recognise and respond to issues at the town level, as place-based policies had previously been too focused on cities and resulted in towns being overlooked.26