The UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced that £20m will be provided to each of seven Scottish towns to tackle anti-social behaviour and regenerate high streets. The aim of the 10-year deal is to give local people the funding to improve their communities. The chosen towns are Greenock, Kilmarnock, Clydebank, Elgin, Irvine, Coatbridge and Dumfries. The money is part of the UK government’s levelling up fund, which is worth £1.1bn and will be distributed across 55 towns around the country, to be spent over the next 10 years.
But Scotland’s government has criticised the move, describing it as “extremely disappointing” that it was not consulted about how the money could be spent. The Scottish government says that it welcomes all extra funding for Scotland, but that it would be much better if provided through the Barnett Formula, its usual means of funding. The UK government has been accused of bypassing Scottish authorities by directly giving money to local authorities.
Mr Sunak announced the funding ahead of the start of the Conservatives’ party conference in Manchester. He said that politicians have been neglecting towns while focusing more on cities. He added that “without a new approach, these problems will only get worse.” The Prime Minister has pledged that such fundings will create opportunities and will level up the economic gap between cities and towns.
The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, has defended the funding planned to benefit his own constituency of Elgin, stating that it was crucially important for local councils to be able to address the real priorities of communities. There is concern that the funding provided will do little to tackle multi-million-pound deficits in local authority budgets. Nonetheless, the UK government is emphasizing its role in Scottish life and its support for communities ignored by politicians.
The distribution of such funding has been contentious. Similar criticism was levelled at the allocation of levelling up funding earlier in the year, with the UK government being called out for bypassing the Scottish Parliament and snubbing devolved authority. Scotland’s government has accused the UK government of undermining the devolution settlement to provoke disagreement, highlighting a lack of cooperation between both governments
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