Council urges Government to refund costs of failed levelling up bids

Durham County Council has called on the Government to repay the £1.2m costs of its five failed levelling up bids after claiming the rules were changed without its knowledge.

The council bid for funds to regenerate several towns in the area and had to pay consultants to prepare these, leading to the wasted costs when bids from elsewhere were accepted but not those from Durham.

Council leader Amanda Hopgood said Durham was removed as a priority area by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities before the third round bids were decided, “therefore reducing the likelihood of any success”, but the council was not given any feedback from the second round of bids.

Cllr Hopgood said the department told Durham to resubmit unsuccessful second round bids to the fund for the third round, but a rule change meant areas that were allocated money in the first round would not gain money in the next, which undermined Durham’s later bids as Bishop Auckland had already received funding.

She said: “Once again after the event we discovered the criteria had been changed yet again without anyone's knowledge.

“As a result of being made aware of this, and there being no more bidding rounds, a further letter has been sent to government requesting full reimbursement of the council's costs.”

Durham submitted bids totalling almost £100m to the Levelling Up Fund in the second rounds after Bishop Auckland secured £20m in the first.

These bids were for projects in Durham, Easington, North Durham, North West Durham and Sedgefield,

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been approached for comment.

Mark Smulian