Title

COMMERCIALISM

BUDGET 2021: £1bn confirmed for town deals

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed more than £1bn will be made available for a further 45 town deals across England as part of efforts to tackle regional inequality.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed more than £1bn will be made available for a further 45 town deals across England as part of efforts to tackle regional inequality.

In today's Budget, Mr Sunak emphasised the importance of ‘levelling up' the country and ‘redrawing our economic map'.

He confirmed that £1bn from the Towns Fund would be invested in 45 deals across England, a large proportion of which would go to the north and Midlands.

The Budget document read: ‘This will help to level up regional towns, giving them the tools to design and implement a growth strategy for their area and aiding local recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.'

Mr Sunak also said that the Government would accelerate investment in three city and growth deals in Scotland (Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, and Falkirk) and three city and growth deals in Wales (Swansea Bay, North-Wales and Mid-Wales).

COMMERCIALISM

If devolution is about identity, culture must be in the script

By Stephen Crocker | 24 November 2025

Culture must be part of the devolution playbook if the new Norfolk & Suffolk Combined Authority is to go the distance, argues Stephen Crocker.

COMMERCIALISM

The National Housing Bank: Will it help councils build?

By Jack Shaw | 21 November 2025

The question of whether the National Housing Bank becomes a central plank of housebuilding and renewal or a missed opportunity will depend on the choices the...

COMMERCIALISM

Fair funding review labelled a 'sham'

By Martin Ford | 20 November 2025

The fair funding review has been labelled a ‘sham’ by rural councils following its publication today.

COMMERCIALISM

Counting the measurable impact of libraries

By James Pearson | 20 November 2025

James Pearson explains how the South East regional network of Libraries Connected used Treasury-approved methods to to show the value generated by everyday l...

Popular articles by William Eichler