Following the Tories announcement on Monday about additional funding in their Stronger Towns announcement, there remain a series of unanswered questions that James Brokenshire, Communities Secretary, has failed to clarify.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and MP for Denton and Reddish, has written to James Brokenshire to ask to clarify a series of questions over the fund.
In the House of Commons yesterday Gwynne said that after nine years of Tory austerity which has clobbered our towns and communities hard, what an insult the Government’s “Stronger Towns” announcement turned out to be.
Why, he asks, will this funding still leave councils with a £5.7bn shortfall in funding and why is deprivation included for consideration for this Fund but not as part of the Tories fair funding review?
He is also asking whu is the Government not fully matching lost EU funding and why is there no clarity over where the money will go and on what?
Finally h wants to know hoe much of this money is already allocated funding, and if none of it, how is the Government raising revenue for the Fund?
