Twenty-Fourth Report - Selecting towns for the Towns Fund

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 … Read more 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 local stakeholders, and collectively gave these criteria less weight compared with the quantitative criteria in its assessment. Similarly, Ministers decided they were better placed to make decisions themselves without seeking the views of local stakeholders, such as LEPs, local MPs and directly elected mayors, despite officials recommending to Ministers that they do so. The Department says that Ministers declined, in writing, to engage with elected mayors on the Towns Fund because they speak routinely with mayors on a range of matters that affect local areas. The Department believes that the necessary local partnerships are being developed through the new tier of governance—Town Deal Boards—being created to support planning and spending of the funding at the town level. The Department says it is satisfied that the Town Deal Boards are well constituted and claims they are working well. It is vital that the Boards continue to fully engage local stakeholders and consult with residents as towns develop bids. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out how it will oversee Town Boards, and how it will ensure that all relevant local and regional bodies, and local residents, are involved in planning and implementing Town Deals. Show less

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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 … Read more 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 against local need, it has yet to develop monitoring and evaluation processes or decide how it will measure the impact and success of the Towns Fund. The Department says that its monitoring regime will measure outcomes that gauge improvement in the health and vitality of towns. It also tells us that outcomes will depend on the nature of each project and set out a list of possible measures which included jobs created, footfall, qualification levels, levels of private investment and commuting times. However, taking job creation as an example, we are not convinced that the Department has thought through how it will define and measure job creation to ensure that the Towns Fund will result in additional, good quality, sustainable jobs. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out how the Towns Fund programme will secure positive, long term outcomes, and the measures of success it intends to use to monitor and evaluate its impact. In particular it should be clear about the measures against which it will measure any new jobs created. Show less

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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 … Read more 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 continue with the Towns Fund and to deliver the fund in a way that maximises the long-term economic growth and productivity of the towns. The Department also confirms that many of the bids are aligned with other funds, both from central and local government, and highlights the importance of aligning the Towns Fund projects with other interventions. But the specific aims of the Towns Fund and how it fits with other, similar programmes of government funding such as the Future High Streets Fund are unclear. Recommendation: The Government should use the opportunity provided by the Spending Review to be clear about the strategic fit of the Towns Fund programme with other funding programmes across government. Show less

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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 … Read more 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 steers towns to think carefully about investments that increase retail space in towns, given that Covid-19 may have accelerated some of the challenges for the high street. We are also concerned that Covid-19 will reduce towns ability to raise match funding for its plans. The Department says that it will help towns to meet the challenges of Covid-19 by giving towns with exceptionally good and well-evidenced plans more than £25 million, the original maximum funding limit, and that towns that have been more adversely affected by Covid-19 may have a greater likelihood of securing funding. It also plans to bring forward £80 million of the Towns Fund with each town receiving between £500,000 and £1 million. We remain concerned though that as the pandemic continues to affect towns, some will find that their plans need to change to respond to new challenges, and the Department needs to be alive to this. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out how it is responding to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on towns and their ability to implement their proposals for spending the funding and on the timeline for releasing funding. 8 Selecting towns for the Towns Fund 1 The selection process Show less

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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 … Read more 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 of charities. The Department expressed confidence that through the Boards the right local coalitions were being developed to put together successful bids and deliver on their plans.27 We heard how some towns are consulting with residents as they develop bids, for example 18 Qq 04–101 19 Qq 29–30, 32, 46–47, 58–59 20 Qq 31, 59 21 Qq 36, 50, 82–84 22 Qq 82–84 23 Qq 49–55 24 Qq 54–55 25 Qq 98–100 26 Q 91 27 Q 61 Selecting towns for the Towns Fund 11 Blackpool, which invited comments from residents on draft versions of its plan through the council’s website.28 We reiterate the vital importance of Boards fully engaging with local stakeholders and consulting with residents as towns develop bids—ensuring this happens will be a key role for the Department’s observers on the Boards.29 28 Q 62 29 Q 85 12 Selecting towns for the Towns Fund 2 Making a success of the Towns Fund Monitoring and evaluating impact Show less

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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 …

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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 …

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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

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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, …

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