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PLANNING

Clark told levelling up is little more than a 'slogan'

MPs have criticised the Government’s flagship levelling up Bill for a lack of clarity and funding commitments.

MPs have criticised the Government's flagship levelling up Bill for a lack of clarity and funding commitments.

The Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee warned the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill contained little to ensure improvement in key areas such as transport, skills training or digital connectivity.

MPs also warned the Government had ‘yet to commit to the spending that is necessary to level up the country'.

In a letter to levelling up secretary Greg Clark, the committee expressed concern about the Bill's lack of detail on planning amid fears of a move to a more centralised approach to decisions.

The committee called on the Government to provide more clarity on how it was going to deliver 300,000 homes each year.

Committee chair Clive Betts said: ‘In its current form, the Bill does little to reassure that levelling up will prove to be more than just a slogan and that we will have meaningful change in local communities across the country.

'In key areas, it is unclear how the Government intends to drive change.'

Chief executive officer at the Centre for Cities think-tank, Andrew Carter, said progress on levelling up had been 'slow' as he warned economic divisions across the UK were 'widening at an alarming rate'.

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