Recommendation 17

We queried whether making “up to” £600 million available for 2021–22 at the Spending Review 2020 had set an expectation about the amount that would be awarded in the first year.51 The Department explained that this £600 million was the amount it expected bidders to spend in the first year of funding and not an indication of how much it intended to award in the first round. When asked how much it had paid out this year, the Department estimated that it had so far paid out around £100 million.52 Given it was only four weeks to the year end when we took evidence, that the Department had required bidders to be able to spend some funding in the 2021–22 financial year as part of the pass/ fail criteria, and it expected bidders to spend £600 million in the year, we would have expected this £100 million figure to be much higher.53