Responding to the Government rejecting the £20 million Levelling Up Fund bid submitted to tackle Bradford’s health inequalities, Bradford East MP, Imran Hussain, has accused Ministers of using the Fund as an election campaign giveaway to prop up Tory MPs.

The Levelling Up Fund was first announced in February 2022 as part of the Government’s strategy to regenerate deprived areas of the country, and over two previous rounds provided over £2 billion to projects across the country, yet despite the Secretary of State for Levelling up declaring last month that Round Three of the Fund would shortly launch and Imran’s intention to resubmit his proposal to create three new community health hubs in Bradford, the Government instead abruptly announced successful projects yesterday without any further round of bid submissions.

The Be Healthy Bradford Project submitted last year by Imran jointly with Bradford Council and community centres and grassroots activists across Bradford would have seen £20 million invested in creating three community health hubs that would be transformational in tackling Bradford’s grave health inequalities. However, despite describing the proposal as a “strong bid” the Government rejected the project at Round Two and urged Imran to resubmit this Autumn.

The abrupt announcement and heavy concentration of successful projects in constituencies held by Conservative MPs has led Imran to criticise the awarding of successful Round Three projects as an election campaign giveaway to prop up these Conservative MPs at risk of losing their seats in the next general election, which is supported by the conclusion of a Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee report earlier this year which already identified concerns with the allocation process of the fund.

Speaking on his accusation that Ministers used the Levelling Up Fund as an election giveaway to support Tory MPs in marginal constituencies, Imran said:

“Bradford’s health inequalities mean more people are unable to access healthcare, suffering from preventable diseases, and dying younger, which is why our £20 million bid to create three new community health hubs to tackle these inequalities was so important. Yet despite describing it as a ‘strong bid’ earlier this year, Ministers have now instead rejected this desperately needed bid in favour of projects that try to prop up Tory MPs.

“After years of underfunding, neglect and brutal austerity cuts, the levelling up agenda can be key to tackling the serious challenges that deprived regions like Bradford face, but which more affluent parts of the country do not, and the Government’s decision to not move forward with our transformational healthcare bid that was rooted in the local communities that they will serve is not just bitterly disappointing, but infuriating.

“With our bid being based in Bradford’s inner city and a general election less than a year away, Ministers clearly saw no electoral advantage in giving us the support we need, and they’ve failed to realise the full potential of the Levelling Up Fund. However, whilst the Prime Minister is clearly still committed to moving funding from deprived regions to richer ones, I will continue to campaign for Bradford to get the investment we need to improve health outcomes across the District.”