The Executive Member for Regeneration submitted a report for
Executive’s consideration.
The purpose of the report was to seek Executive approval for
Middlesbrough Council to accept £20.816 million of Levelling Up Partnership
(LUP) funding and agree, as the Accountable Body, to deliver and enable local
partners to deliver the package of proposed projects.
Having been identified as an area of need by Government,
Middlesbrough Council had been working alongside the Department for Levelling
Up Homes and Community (DLUHC) to develop a series of projects to be delivered
by 31st March 2025, to address Middlesbrough’s greatest areas of need. The
funding would be provided under a S31 grant to the authority,
and was expected to be provided in two tranches of approximately £9.900m
in 2023 -2024 and £10.916 in 2024 - 2025 financial years. The first payment of
£9.9m was received in December 2023.
Levelling up partnerships aimed to bring the collective
power of Government to provide bespoke place-based regeneration in 20 of
England’s areas in greatest need of levelling up over 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Middlesbrough had been selected based on the analysis in the
levelling up White Paper which considered places in England against four key
metrics: the percentage of adults with Level 3+ qualifications; gross value
added (GVA) per hour worked; median gross weekly pay; and healthy life
expectancy.
There was up to £20.816m capital resource available for the
Levelling Up Partnership in the financial years 2023 - 2024 and 2024 - 2025.
Total funding allocated would depend on the policies agreed and subject to
business case approvals.
Awarded capital resource could cover expenditure on assets,
investment in existing assets and capital grants to third parties, with respect
to this programme this would be delivered via capital grant from Central
Government which would fund capital costs of delivering bespoke local
programmes.
The Mayor was encouraged to see a health offering as part of the proposals and that the partnership overall was a benefit for the town.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Decision due: 14 Feb 2024 by Executive