Last night, the Government announced that Bradford had not been successful in its levelling up bid to regenerate the Odsal area of Bradford South.
Speaking in Parliament in response to the announcement, Judith asked:
“Would the Minister agree with me that the British people have an innate sense of fair play?
“Independent analysis of the largest cities and towns in England identified Bradford as the UK’s number one Levelling Up opportunity – given that none of the four Bradford bids were successful in this round – does the Minister believe that the people of Bradford will think this is a fair outcome, or indeed that this process stinks?”
Responding, Lucy Frazer MP, Minister for Housing and Planning said:
“As I mentioned earlier, as somebody who grew up in Leeds, I understand how important that area of the country is, and how much more we can do. We were only able to allocate in this round £2.1 billion, but there is further funding available and Levelling Up Round 3 will be coming in due course.”
Speaking afterwards, Judith said:
"This is yet another example of this Government leaving Bradford and West Yorkshire behind.
It is hugely disappointing that Bradford's ambitious £50m levelling up bid to regenerate the Osdal area has not been successful. The transformative plan would have brought significant investment and hundreds of jobs in to Bradford.
It is a damning indictment of this Government's lack of vision and support for Bradford when not one of the city's submitted bids in this round was successful.”
Judith added: “This is not the government levelling up, it is the government messing up. The government needs to fix the process to ensure fairness, so that public funds are targeted to places that would benefit the most like Bradford.”
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