To think the Northern towns deserve "levelling up"

[EricBartholomew]

It's been a good news day in that the levelling up fund has now been distributed and announced. Today on the radio I've heard much disappointment from those who weren't afforded funding (in Leeds and certain areas in Liverpool, other cities).

AIBU to be pleased that the biggest lump of cash is going to somewhere like Morecambe and not a city or a town of the fringes of a city? They already benefit from the wealth there and the investment that comes with it.

There has been a feeling of being "left to rot" in some of these towns for so long that we have nothing but our communities pulling together. I'm so pleased that there is hope (and funding) today for the beautiful Morecambe Bay and other towns that have got levelling up funding. It's well deserved.

Like other posters I'm pointing out that northern towns don't have some divine right to the money. Other areas are poorer than some of the areas that apparently "deserve" the money.

For once @ancientgran and I are united!

Nobody has ever said there is a divine right to money. However these former industrial towns have a specific set of challenges which people want to discuss without constant interruptions of ‘what about Barnstaple?’

Hastings is very deprived too, and Newhaven. Both qualified for funding from a special pot of EU money for the most deprived towns in the EU, although it's hard to see what they spent it on. And the Medway towns used to be beyond grim, but I believe have improved over the thirty years since I last had any need to visit.

But these are pockets of deprivation in an otherwise affluent region, and that's a very different matter from a deprived region with pockets of affluence.