A new Eden Project for the north of England is among more than 100 schemes to have won government funding from the delayed £2.1bn second phase of the levelling-up fund.
The planned eco-attraction in Morecambe, on the Lancashire coast, will receive £50mn for local capital projects, as part of the Conservative party’s “levelling-up” policy, an election pledge to narrow regional economic divides.
Successful bids for round two of the fund, which councils had originally expected to be confirmed in October, were announced on Wednesday. They also include a £50mn upgraded rail link through Cornwall, connecting Newquay, St Austell, Truro and Falmouth.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak said the announcement represented “new transformational funding to level up local communities across the UK”.
He added: “By reaching even more parts of the country than before, we will build a future of optimism and pride in people’s lives and the places they call home.”
The first tranche of the £4.8bn levelling-up fund was announced in 2021, awarding almost £1.7bn to 105 successful bids, ranging from leisure centres to cultural attractions.
After central government was hit in summer 2022 by turmoil following the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister, however, the assessment of applications into round two had been delayed in Whitehall, prompting frustration among local authorities and criticism from Labour. Its confirmation now provides a further £2.1bn to 111 areas.
Lancashire’s Eden Project North, which aims to create a new version of the existing biodome attraction in Cornwall and reinvigorate the coastal economy around Morecambe, represents one of the most high-profile winners.
The £100mn project has already had planning permission and promises to “reimagine” the resort, which declined in the latter half of the 20th-century, with a new ecological observatory and cultural performances.
Other successful applications come from areas that failed to secure money in round one, such as a new £10mn outdoor activity park in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and leisure centre improvements in Knowsley, Merseyside.
The Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool, whose rejected £20mn first-round bid included gap funding for transforming a former Post Office into a boutique hotel, received £40mn this time for a new AI-focused university campus.
Gateshead, in the north-east, was rejected in 2021 for a £20mn quayside regeneration bid but has now had the sum — towards a new arena, exhibition centre and leisure destination — granted.
Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership lobby group, said the projects were “reasons to celebrate” the announcement.
But, he added, it was still a “long way off radical economic transformation we were promised” and would “not make a material difference to closing the north-south divide in productivity overall”.
Bidding processes wasted resource at local level, he said, arguing the fund should be replaced by devolved settlements to mayors.
Northern Ireland received £71mn, well up from the £49mn allotted in the first round, for 10 projects including waterfront gardens in the city of Bangor, the transformation of a former high school into an industrial park and a new leisure and wellbeing centre in Enniskillen.
Other initiatives include a boost for 20 local rugby clubs, including new female changing rooms to boost women’s participation in the sport, and the rescue of the art deco Strand Picturehouse in Belfast.
Chris Heaton-Harris, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, called the funds “a fantastic outcome for communities here”. The region is one of the most disadvantaged in the UK.
Shadow levelling-up secretary Lisa Nandy said the fund was in “chaos”, pointing to a Freedom of Information request last year that showed just 5 per cent of first-round allocations had been spent.
“It takes an extraordinary arrogance to expect us to be grateful for a partial refund on the money they have stripped out of our communities,” she said, referring to austerity. She called the fund a “Hunger Games-style contest” for grants.
Government confirmed that a third phase of the fund, which many MPs and councils had feared could be in doubt because of inflation, will go ahead.
