Council yet to spend £31m of Levelling-Up funding

More than £31m of Stoke-on-Trent's Levelling Up money remains unspent - nearly five years after the funding was announced, new figures show.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council was awarded £56 million for numerous regeneration schemes by the Conservative government in 2021.

A Freedom of Information request shows the city council has not yet spent most of the money that was made available.

Critics said the delay in spending the money has meant Stoke-on-Trent has missed out, but the council said funding would be spent before the government's 2028 deadline.

The Goods Yard development next to the railway station, which was allocated £16m of funding, is the only one of Stoke-on-Trent's Levelling Up schemes to be completed so far.

A total of £8.98m has been spent on the other projects, including the Etruscan Square development in Hanley and the Spode scheme in Stoke.

A city council spokesperson said: "The largest element of our Levelling Up Fund remains the £14m for Etruscan Square, and we are in the final stage of negotiations on how this will be invested in time to meet the spend deadline.

"We also have a signed partnership for the regeneration of the Spode Works. [Around] £6m in Levelling Up funding has been allocated – this is in progress and will meet the spend deadline.

"We also have a signed agreement to provide a £2m grant to bring back into use one of the largest buildings on the Spode site."

The long-awaited Etruscan Square scheme in the city centre, which was allocated £20m of Levelling Up cash, is set to include new homes along with leisure and commercial space.

A total of £4.4m of Levelling Up funding has been spent on Etruscan Square so far, on professional services, demolition and land remediation.

Another £20m was awarded to projects aimed at bringing three town centre heritage sites back into use: Spode, Tunstall Library and Baths and the Crown Works in Longton.

So far, £2.6m has been spent on Spode, while £1.7m has been spent on the Tunstall scheme and £691,464 on the Crown Works.

Reform UK group leader Dan Jellyman, who was cabinet member for regeneration when the funding was awarded in 2021, said: "After three years of Labour, what do we have to show for it in Stoke-on-Trent? Three emergency bailouts, three maximum council tax rises, and still £31m of levelling-up money sitting in the bank doing nothing."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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