UK levelling up projects remain unfinished as delivery lags across regions

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UK levelling up projects backlog

Highlights

As of May, 821 of 1,347 UK levelling up projects remained unfinished, with 73 council areas seeing no completed schemes, per FOI data.
Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and regions like north-west England and Yorkshire show particularly slow project completion rates despite substantial initial allocations.
Rising inflation and short-term competitive funding models are cited as key drivers for delays, prompting Labour to restructure funding through the Local Regeneration Fund with a 2028 deadline.

Project backlog and funding timelines

As first reported by The Guardian, data released under freedom of information laws and reviewed with support from Groundwork Research shows 821 of 1,347 levelling up projects were yet to be finalised as of May this year. The figures cover the Future High Streets Fund, Town Deals and the Levelling Up Fund, with 73 council areas still not seeing a single approved project fully completed at that point.

The Guardian also identifies 59 projects completed after the data was collected. Even so, the overall picture points to a delivery gap in a programme that was central to Boris Johnson's 2019 pledge to revive left-behind towns and spread opportunity under the levelling up agenda led by Michael Gove.

The Future High Streets Fund was due to complete in March 2024, while the original deadline for spending all Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund money was March 2026. Under Labour, the Levelling Up Fund and Town Deals are consolidated into the Local Regeneration Fund, with a new deadline of March 2028.

Regional disparities and policy concerns

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are seeing slower project delivery despite having fewer schemes overall. North-west England and Yorkshire also post low completion rates, although they were allocated the largest number of projects from the outset.

Specific local examples underline the delays. Blackburn with Darwen council has eight projects funded through the Local Regeneration Fund and none is fully completed, while all eight funded projects in Leeds are yet to close, including five in Morley covering the town hall, a learning and skills centre, a station gateway transport scheme, greening works and the Heritage Investment Programme, which is only partly completed.

Researchers and policy specialists say inflation is one reason projects are slipping, as higher costs force councils to scale back or pause work. Jack Shaw, director of Groundwork Research, says the figures show a large gap between levelling up ambitions and delivery, while critics from IPPR North and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies argue that short-term competitive funding models can slow implementation and weaken long-term local economic impact.

Labour has since launched the Pride in Place programme, which offers longer-term funding with local boards deciding how money is spent instead of requiring councils to compete for grants. Supporters say that structure could give communities more certainty, but some analysts warn that capital-heavy projects still take time and may face similar delivery pressures if expectations for rapid results remain high.

Mario Draghi’s warning on the debt–inflation trade-off highlighted how aggressive tightening can curb the very investment needed for long-term growth and resilience to supply shocks. Our earlier article noted his case for keeping rates no higher than necessary for price stability, alongside complementary measures such as deeper EU market integration and targeted industrial policy to support productivity-enhancing investment.

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