Recommendations & Conclusions
27 items
2
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department has a weak and unconvincing justification for not publishing any information on the process it followed, which does not vindicate its lack of transparency. The Department says that it did not reveal the detail behind its selection of towns so as not to raise local expectations about an …
Government response. 2020. Funding offered is determined by an objective formula, based on assessment of the Town Investment Plan. Feedback is provided on request. 2.4 In relation to funding decisions on the Towns Fund and similar local growth programmes, the department will …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
It is unclear how much engagement and intelligence gathering, if any, Ministers held with local and regional representatives, to inform their selection of towns from the medium- and low-priority groups. Departmental officials assessed towns against three qualitative criteria using the knowledge of the Department’s area-based teams, rather than consult with …
Government response. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 As the Committee will know, the department and Ministers engage regularly and widely with local and regional representatives, including Members of Parliament, to understand their priorities for their local …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
It is still unclear what impact the Department is expecting from the Towns Fund, or when, and how the Department will measure its success. Although the Department is positive about the quality of the 13 plans submitted by the first cohort of towns and describes how it is assessing plans …
Government response. 2021. The department will use the annual update to keep the Committee informed of the success of the Fund with evidence from the monitoring and evaluation process.
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
We are concerned that towns may not have the capacity to deliver their plans and spend the money well. The Department says that the towns most in need of investment would have been disadvantaged in a competitive bidding process because of a lack of leadership, resources or experience of dealing …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: April 2021 5.2 Local areas understand best what they need to grow and thrive. Nevertheless, the department shares the Committee’s concern that some areas might need additional support to …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
It is not clear how the Towns Fund fits with other government funding programmes with overlapping aims. The Department confirms that, despite the impact of Covid-19 on government spending plans, the £3.6 billion funding allocated to the Towns Fund is secure. It has no plans to do anything other than …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 6.2 The department recognises that there are several funding programmes at the local level. That is why one of the specific purposes of Town Deals was to allow towns to …
HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The impact of Covid-19 is likely to mean that some towns’ plans for how best to spend the money will need to be revisited. We are very concerned about the short-term and long-term effects of Covid-19 on towns, and high streets in particular. The Department tells us that its guidance …
Government response. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department has been very aware of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of the Towns Fund. Indeed, the type of interventions funded through the Towns Fund have …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (the Department) about the Towns Fund.1
Government response. Based on a report by the National Audit Office, the Committee took evidence on Monday 21 September 2020 from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. The Committee published its report on 11 November 2020. This is the Government …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department’s lack of transparency fuelled accusations of political bias in the selection process.16 Furthermore, the Department’s statements to the press, issued after the National Audit Office’s report was published, referred to the report concluding that the selection process had been ‘robust’, whereas the report makes no such statement—which is …
Government response. 1.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 1.2 As the Committee will be aware and as set out in Treasury Minutes from December 2016 (recommendation 3b) wider government practice precludes the sharing of the full Accounting Officer advice with …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
Other examples of lack of clarity around the Towns Fund process are also of concern to us. The Department gave a confusing explanation for how and why the risks from a no- deal Brexit were assessed by Ministers, when already included in Departmental officials’ assessment. The Department agreed to write …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 As the Committee will be aware, the department wrote to the Committee in October 2020 with details of how town level scores were calculated in relation to risks from …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
We heard from the Department that its officials had assessed each town against three qualitative criteria using the knowledge of its area-based teams, rather than consulting directly with local stakeholders. The Department argued that it gave more weight to the quantitative criteria in its assessment, and that its area-based teams …
Government response. 3.2 As the Committee will know, the department and Ministers engage regularly and widely with local and regional representatives, including Members of Parliament, to understand their priorities for their local areas and communities. 3.3 Specifically in relation to the Towns …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
We queried why the Department had required a new tier of governance—Town Deal Boards—to be set up, rather than use existing governance structures to plan and implement the Towns Fund at the local level. The Department explained that existing structures, such as mayoral combined authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships, were …
Government response. 3.2 As the Committee will know, the department and Ministers engage regularly and widely with local and regional representatives, including Members of Parliament, to understand their priorities for their local areas and communities. 3.3 Specifically in relation to the Towns …
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department told us that it is satisfied that the Town Deal Boards are well constituted, meeting departmental stipulations, and coming together well. Boards are involving the private sector and the wider social sector, with examples of some Boards being chaired by private sector business people and others by chairs …
Government response. 3.2 As the Committee will know, the department and Ministers engage regularly and widely with local and regional representatives, including Members of Parliament, to understand their priorities for their local areas and communities. 3.3 Specifically in relation to the Towns …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department told us that it had not completed its analysis of the 13 plans submitted by the first cohort of towns but its early impressions of the quality of the plans and the range of interventions proposed were positive.30 It described how it was assessing town investment plans against …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
Given our concerns in the past about the Department’s failure to put in place quantifiable objectives to help it measure the impact of its interventions on local economic growth, we asked the Department how it intended to approach this for the Towns Fund, to properly measure impacts such as job …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2021 4.2 The department does not agree with the committee’s conclusion that it has not been clear on the impact it expects from the Towns Fund. The objectives …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department told us that it is looking to probe each project to gauge how convinced it is that towns can deliver their plans successfully, and that it will build in robust monitoring and evaluation processes from the start, agreeing key outputs and outcomes such as jobs created and footfall …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Spring 2021 4.2 The department does not agree with the committee’s conclusion that it has not been clear on the impact it expects from the Towns Fund. The objectives …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department’s rationale for opting for “a deals-based approach” to funding, rather than a competitive bidding process, was because towns most in need of investment would have been disadvantaged in a competitive bidding process due to a lack of leadership, resources or experience of dealing with government departments. The Department …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department further told us that it had entered into a contract worth around £8 million with Arup, a professional services company, to provide towns with specific expertise in areas such as real estate valuation. The Department described the efficiency benefits it envisages in such an arrangement, whereby towns will …
Government response. 5.2 Local areas understand best what they need to grow and thrive. Nevertheless, the department shares the Committee’s concern that some areas might need additional support to fully develop their plans and have taken steps from the outset to address …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department told us that it is working at pace to agree the funding that will be available for the 13 towns in the first cohort and would like to be able to make decisions in October. But the Department did not want to guarantee it would meet that deadline …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department has developed a funding profile for the Towns Fund over the next four financial years but does not know yet whether it aligns with towns’ individual investment plans. The Department explained that it wants the profile of funding over time to be led by what works in terms …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The £3.6 billion Towns Fund has three separate strands of funding comprising: • The 101 selected towns invited to develop Town Deals and bid for up to £25 million each, or up to £50 million in exceptional circumstances; • A competition for funding for those towns not in the initial …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department confirmed that, despite the impact of Covid-19 on government spending plans, the £3.6 billion funding allocated to the Towns Fund is secure. It told us that it had no plans to do anything other than continue with the Towns Fund and to deliver the fund in a way …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
We asked the Department whether, given the scale of change happening, it will bid for higher levels of funding to support the Future High Streets Fund. It explained that, as many of the towns that are eligible for Future High Streets funding are also eligible for Towns Fund funding, it …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 6.2 The department recognises that there are several funding programmes at the local level. That is why one of the specific purposes of Town Deals was to allow towns to …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department told us that many of the bids are aligned with other funds, both from central and local government, and highlighted the importance of aligning the Towns Fund projects with other interventions.48 But the specific aims of the Towns Fund and how it fits with other, similar programmes of …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
A consistent theme highlighted in the town plans that the Department has seen so far is the impact of Covid-19, leading towns to think about a more diverse range of uses for the high street. The Department told us that its guidance steers towns to think carefully about investments that …
Government response. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department has been very aware of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of the Towns Fund. Indeed, the type of interventions funded through the Towns Fund have …
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
How the impact of Covid-19 will influence decisions about how the Department allocates the Towns Fund is unclear. Whether towns that have been adversely affected by Covid-19 will have a greater likelihood of selection, or whether events may mean that some of the plans set out in winning bids are …
Government response. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department has been very aware of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of the Towns Fund. Indeed, the type of interventions funded through the Towns Fund have …
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department explained that because of Covid-19 and the recent demands that have been placed on local government, the private sector and other members of the Town Deal Boards, it has left towns and the Town Deal Boards to determine which wave of funding they wanted to work towards.51 While …
Government response. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department has been very aware of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of the Towns Fund. Indeed, the type of interventions funded through the Towns Fund have …
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns …
The Department has brought forward £80 million of the Towns Fund, with each eligible town receiving between £500,000 and £1 million for projects that will make a difference to the area, such as new green spaces, the creation of pop-up businesses spaces, pedestrianisation of streets to encourage walking or cycling, …
Government response. 7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 The department has been very aware of the impact of COVID-19 on the delivery of the Towns Fund. Indeed, the type of interventions funded through the Towns Fund have …
HM Treasury