Government called to use ‘wasted’ Levelling Up funds to improve health services in Sheerwater 

Will Forster, the Deputy Leader of Woking Borough Council and Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Woking, has written to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, calling on him to reallocate some of the ‘wasted’ funds from the Levelling Up Rounds to provide much needed services in Sheerwater. 

Woking Borough Council’s unsuccessful bid for £3.8 million from Round Two of the Levelling Up fund would have provided a one stop Health and Community Campus for Sheerwater residents.  There was a demonstrably strong strategic, economic, environmental and deliverability case when measured against the bid criteria.  Sheerwater is a neighbourhood listed by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) as one of the 20% most income deprived in England. 

The Public Accounts Committee found that only £3.7 billion had been allocated by Central Government out of a total for the Government’s combined Levelling Up funds of around £10.47 billion.  Furthermore, only about £1.24 billion (less than 10%) had actually been spent by December 2023. 

The inefficiency in the Levelling Up allocation process, alongside a range of project specific challenges faced by many local authorities, means that there is likely to be a significant sum not spent by 2025-26.  It is not clear how much of that expected underspend would then be reallocated to other central government priorities.   

Lib Dem Councillor Will Forster, said: “This is a yet another shocking example of Conservative mismanagement of public money.  We in Woking are used to Conservative incompetence.  The effective bankruptcy of our Council after the appalling tenure of the previous Conservative administration is why the Council is unable to complete this necessary health and community project itself, as part of the Sheerwater Regeneration Plan, and the Government has previously rejected the Council’s bid for funding.” 

“I am calling on the Secretary of State to help the people of Sheerwater access the health and community services they so desperately need now and ensure that a greater proportion of the Levelling Up money set aside to tackle this country’s infrastructure needs reaches a worthy source.”