Crawley's £10million Levelling Up bid from central government is unsuccessful

The money from the £2.1bn pot, would have been spent on several projects in the continued regeneration of the town centre.

Leader Michael Jones described the decision as ‘incredibly disappointing’ and accused the government of ‘letting down our borough’.

A council spokesman said: “We’re extremely disappointed that our £10m bid to the Levelling Up Fund to help revive Crawley’s economy has been unsuccessful.

“The money, with £1.4m of council funds, would have been used to complete the regeneration and environmental transformation of the town centre, repeating the high quality feel of Queens Square, Queensway and The Pavement in the Western Boulevard area, The Martlets, The Broadway and The Broadwalk / High Street intersection.

“The investment would have transformed the key connector streets between County Mall, Queens Square, the bus and railway station area and the historic High Street.”

While most of the work planned for the western end of the Boulevard will be covered using money from the Crawley Growth Programme, the spokesman said the council would have to bid for funds from other pots to pay for the rest of the projects.

Levelling Up was launched in 2020 with the aim of closing the gap between rich and poor parts of the country by improving services such as education, broadband and transport.

The first round of funding was awarded in October 2021.

A total of 111 areas across the UK were awarded money from the second round.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "Through greater investment in local areas, we can grow the economy, create good jobs and spread opportunity everywhere.

“That’s why we are backing more than 100 projects with new transformational funding to level up local communities across the United Kingdom.

“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.”

Central government has confirmed there will be a further round of the Levelling Up Fund, providing more opportunity to places such as Crawley which have up to this point been unsuccessful.