Fifth Report - Local economic growth

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 252 8 June 2022
Report Status Response document linked Recorded deadline: 8 Aug 2022

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Conclusions & Recommendations 27 items (12 recs)
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Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth report from Session 2022-23 · published 2 Sep 2022
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Recommendations & Conclusions

27 results
2 Recommendation
The Department does not yet have a strong understanding of what works for local growth...
Recommendation
The Department does not yet have a strong understanding of what works for local growth but we welcome its belated commitment to evaluating local growth interventions. It is disappointing that, despite billions spent on local growth over many decades, government … Read more
HM Treasury
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3 Recommendation
We are concerned that optimism bias has meant realistic bids to the Levelling Up Fund...
Recommendation
We are concerned that optimism bias has meant realistic bids to the Levelling Up Fund have missed out at the expense of ‘shovel-ready’ projects that have since been beset with delays. The Department told us that, four weeks from year … Read more
HM Treasury
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4 Recommendation
There remains considerable uncertainty for Local Authorities around funding, structures and responsibilities for local economic...
Recommendation
There remains considerable uncertainty for Local Authorities around funding, structures and responsibilities for local economic growth. The Department extols the virtues of local plans for coordinating and achieving value for money from central government funding. However local authorities’ attempts at … Read more
HM Treasury
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5 Recommendation
It is unclear how the Department is reconciling tensions between devolved responsibilities and administering local...
Recommendation
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
HM Treasury
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6 Recommendation
Accountability for levelling up outcomes remains unsatisfactory.
Recommendation
Accountability for levelling up outcomes remains unsatisfactory. This Committee has reported before that government’s accountability arrangements had failed to keep pace with increasingly complex ways of delivering policies and services. and that this had weakened accountability to Parliament for the … Read more
HM Treasury
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7 Recommendation
The Department does not yet know how it will measure performance on a consistent basis...
Recommendation
The Department does not yet know how it will measure performance on a consistent basis across different geographical areas and timescales. We are concerned that data availability and quality is not yet adequate to track progress against the Levelling Up … Read more
HM Treasury
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1 Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (the Department), HM Treasury, the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial … Read more
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8 Conclusion
LEPS, the business led-partnerships that have been an important part of the local growth landscape...
Conclusion
LEPS, the business led-partnerships that have been an important part of the local growth landscape over the past decade, will take a back seat going forward as government delivers more funding through local authorities. The Department told us it is … Read more
HM Treasury
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9 Conclusion
Economic development is a devolved power and, since the late 1990s, local growth funding in...
Conclusion
Economic development is a devolved power and, since the late 1990s, local growth funding in the devolved nations has been managed by the Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.24 Since 2020 however, central government’s principle local growth … Read more
HM Treasury
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10 Conclusion
We asked the Department how the part played by the devolved governments on the UK...
Conclusion
We asked the Department how the part played by the devolved governments on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund compared to their part in deciding the allocation of the European funds it is replacing. The Department explained that for the European … Read more
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11 Conclusion
The Department reassured us that it was expecting to work very closely with each of...
Conclusion
The Department reassured us that it was expecting to work very closely with each of the devolved Governments and with the individual local authorities responsible for delivery. We were, however, sceptical about how close past cooperation with devolved Governments had … Read more
HM Treasury
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12 Recommendation
We questioned the Department on whether the way in which it was awarding funding might...
Recommendation
We questioned the Department on whether the way in which it was awarding funding might mean some areas missed out multiple times across the various funding pots while others were given several opportunities to get funding.31 The Department explained that … Read more
HM Treasury
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13 Recommendation
We reminded the Department that when we reported previously on the Towns Fund we had...
Recommendation
We reminded the Department that when we reported previously on the Towns Fund we had raised concerns over the opacity over some of its decision making.34 In November 2020, we reported that the selection process for awarding the Towns Fund … Read more
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14 Recommendation
The Department’s accounting officer reasoned that we had discussed and reported on the Towns Fund...
Recommendation
The Department’s accounting officer reasoned that we had discussed and reported on the Towns Fund at quite considerable length and that he felt it had a been a valid and fair process.37 In respect of the Levelling Up Fund, he … Read more
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15 Recommendation
We questioned the Department on the nature and timing of the role for Ministers in...
Recommendation
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
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16 Conclusion
According to its business case, the Department expected to allocate £720 million of the total...
Conclusion
According to its business case, the Department expected to allocate £720 million of the total £4.8 billion budget in the first round of the Levelling Up Fund. In October 2021, government announced 105 successful bids totalling £1.7 billion for the … Read more
HM Treasury
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17 Conclusion
We queried whether making “up to” £600 million available for 2021–22 at the Spending Review...
Conclusion
We queried whether making “up to” £600 million available for 2021–22 at the Spending Review 2020 had set an expectation about the amount that would be awarded in the first year.51 The Department explained that this £600 million was the … Read more
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18 Conclusion
The Department told us that getting started on delivery was, in many cases, taking longer...
Conclusion
The Department told us that getting started on delivery was, in many cases, taking longer than expected but that it did not want to penalise places now that they had got through the assessment process. We heard that delays have … Read more
HM Treasury
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19 Conclusion
This Committee reported in 2016 that government’s accountability arrangements had failed to keep pace with...
Conclusion
This Committee reported in 2016 that government’s accountability arrangements had failed to keep pace with increasingly complex ways of delivering policies and services and that this had weakened accountability to Parliament for the use of public funds.56 Noting the long … Read more
HM Treasury
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20 Conclusion
We heard that a lot of the missions were cross-cutting and would require leadership from...
Conclusion
We heard that a lot of the missions were cross-cutting and would require leadership from several departments while others were more focussed and there would be more of a role for a lead department.59 For example, the Accounting Officer from … Read more
HM Treasury
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21 Conclusion
We questioned the Department on why, despite billions of pounds spent on it over the...
Conclusion
We questioned the Department on why, despite billions of pounds spent on it over the years, there was so little evidence on what works for delivering local economic growth, particularly outside London. The Department’s Accounting Officer pointed to the inherent … Read more
HM Treasury
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22 Conclusion
In 2019, this Committee reported that the Department did not understand what impacts its £12...
Conclusion
In 2019, this Committee reported that the Department did not understand what impacts its £12 billion Local Growth Fund had had on local economic growth yet had decided not to evaluate it.65 We were encouraged to learn that the Department … Read more
HM Treasury
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23 Recommendation
The Department has been considering an overarching monitoring and evaluation framework for local growth to...
Recommendation
The Department has been considering an overarching monitoring and evaluation framework for local growth to include common objectives and outcomes, within which individual programme-level frameworks would sit. This would enable it to compare the relative effectiveness of similar initiatives and … Read more
HM Treasury
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24 Recommendation
When we asked what success would look like for people in areas where, for example,...
Recommendation
When we asked what success would look like for people in areas where, for example, it is hard to get a job or the High Street is struggling, the Department highlighted the importance of taking a broad definition of growth.71 … Read more
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25 Conclusion
Two of the missions in the Levelling Up White Paper are ‘overarching’ missions.
Conclusion
Two of the missions in the Levelling Up White Paper are ‘overarching’ missions. The first is around living standards and includes measures of productivity, pay and jobs and the second is around measures of well-being.73 With reference to the first, … Read more
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26 Conclusion
When we asked the Department whether it expected to be able to get this data...
Conclusion
When we asked the Department whether it expected to be able to get this data quickly enough to be able to measure what impact the funds under its levelling-up agenda were having, the Department told us it would be able … Read more
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27 Conclusion
We asked the Department how it intended to pull together all this data to show...
Conclusion
We asked the Department how it intended to pull together all this data to show a big picture, as well as a local picture, to demonstrate the effectiveness of government’s levelling up agenda. The Department told us it had committed … Read more
HM Treasury
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