Towns Fund open to Morley, Castleford and Wakefield bids 'does not go far enough' to tackle austerity impact - Labour MP Yvette Cooper

The Towns Fund will see £3.6bn in regeneration funding distributed to dozens of towns around the UK, with Morley, Castleford and Wakefield among those in the running to receive multi-million pound funding packages towards boosting transport, broadband connectivity, skills and culture.

A number of Yorkshire's Labour MPs used a Commons debate this week to attack the project after analysis revealed a high proportion of the areas offered up to £25m were marginal seats at the 2019 General Election.

Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper said the fund did not go far enough to tackle the disproportionate impact of austerity on towns, and criticised the fact that Knottingley in her constituency had missed out on funding while other less hard-hit towns had been successful.

She said: "I've been calling for investment in our towns for many years as part of the Labour towns campaign, because we've seen over the last 10 years, the number of jobs growing in our towns has been half the rate of in our cities business growth in our towns has been half the rate than our cities and austerity has hit our towns much harder than our cities.

"We have lost more public services, seen those services shrink back under 10 years of Conservative government austerity."

But Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy, who spoke next in the debate, responded: "We'll take no lectures from the party opposite who had 13 years in power, and did absolutely nothing to invest in any meaningful way in our towns across the North of England."

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The Tory MP said the port town of Goole, which was successful in the bidding process, had submitted a plan based on digital, flood protection and connectivity improvements in areas such as the Goole to Leeds train line.

In total 101 towns across England were chosen to bid for up to £25m from the Towns Fund in September 2019, with the amount of money ultimately awarded depending on the strength of investment plans drawn up locally.

The Government says the funding will help local leaders "transform their town’s economic growth prospects with a focus on improved transport, broadband connectivity, skills and culture".

Castleford was selected automatically after being graded as high priority by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Morley was despite being rated as 'low-priority', while Wakefield made the list after being ranked as 'medium-priority'.

A National Audit Office report shows 61 of the towns were chosen at the discretion of Ministers led by Robert Jenrick, the housing and communities secretary. An analysis shows that all but one of them were either Conservative-held seats or Tory targets before the election.

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