MPs question transparency of Towns Fund selection process

A group of MPs has said it is ‘not convinced by the rationales’ for selecting some towns and not others for the government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund.

A report published today (11 November) by the public accounts committee said the lack of transparency in selecting the 101 towns is ‘a risk to the civil service’s reputation for integrity and impartiality’.

The report adds it is ‘still far from clear’ what impact the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) expects from the Towns Fund, when it expects to see the benefits, and how it will measure success both at the town level and across the entire programme.

The committee said it will keep ‘a watching brief’ on the scheme and expects regular updates to hold government to account for how it has used taxpayers’ money in the fund.

The government first announced the £3.6bn Towns Fund in July 2019 and in September last year, it published the list of places that would be invited to develop proposals for the fund.

However, the selection process for those towns was questioned by opposition MPs and later examined by the National Audit Office (NAO), which published a report into the matter in July.

And in October, housing secretary Robert Jenrick calls from the Labour Party for an investigation into how his Newark constituency was awarded £25m, as part of the fund.

‘In our programme of work on the government response to the Covid pandemic, we have begun to see the grim, potentially huge costs of public spending made in haste and without all the usual, legal checks and controls,’ said committee chair, Meg Hillier.

‘That makes it all the less acceptable to now be looking at billions of pounds handed out in an opaque process that has every appearance of having been politically motivated – long before Covid struck.

‘Now, when every penny counts, and when some towns that won funding will almost certainly have to redirect it to fill the massive holes the pandemic has blown in their budgets, MHCLG must be open and transparent about the decisions it made to hand out those £billions of taxpayers’ money, and what it expects to deliver’ she added.

In response, an MHCLG spokesperson said: ‘We completely disagree with the committee’s criticism of the Town Fund selection process, which was comprehensive, robust and fair.

‘The Towns Fund will help level up the country, creating jobs and building stronger and more resilient local economies.’

Photo Credit – Pdimaria (Pixabay)