821 of 1,347 Levelling Up Projects Still Unfinished, Data Shows

821 of 1,347 levelling up projects — 57% — were still unfinished as of May this year, according to data released under freedom of information laws and reviewed by the Guardian. The figures expose how the Conservatives' flagship regional equality agenda, promised with fanfare in 2019, has faltered in delivery.

The gap between pledge and pavement is stark in some areas. Seventy-three council areas across the UK that had at least one accepted project bid have not seen a single one fully completed. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland show slower delivery despite having fewer projects overall. North-west England and Yorkshire also record low completion rates, though those two regions were allocated the most projects to begin with. The Guardian has identified a further 59 projects completed since the data was collected.

What do the figures actually cover?

The data spans three of the main funds behind the levelling up agenda: the Future High Streets Fund (launched in 2018), Town Deals (2019) and the Levelling Up Fund (2021). The Future High Streets Fund was supposed to complete by March 2024 — that deadline has passed with most work outstanding. The official deadline for spending all Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund money was March 2026.

Under Labour, the Levelling Up Fund and Town Deals were consolidated into the Local Regeneration Fund, with a new deadline of March 2028 — a two-year extension that quietly concedes the original timetable was unworkable. The national figures exclude 69 projects that were cancelled or merged into other schemes, and some counted as unfinished are broader programmes of which parts may be complete. The government data may also be missing recent completions, which the Guardian attempted to correct using published online announcements.

Why did delivery fall short?

Boris Johnson's government won power in 2019 promising to revive left-behind towns and spread opportunity, with Michael Gove heading the levelling up agenda. The communities that were promised transformation are still waiting.

Jack Shaw, director of Groundwork Research, which supplied the data to the Guardian, said: "Despite significant funding, too many one-off commitments have failed to translate into substantive improvements in communities or local economies." He added that the Pride in Place programme is a step forward because it provides communities with £2m a year over 10 years — £20m per place over the decade — giving them certainty and time to deliver visible, lasting improvements. But he warned the government must also look at how investment can reach communities more quickly, so funding announced at this budget can improve neighbourhoods within this parliament.

Inflation bears part of the blame. Councils had to scale back or pause projects as rising costs ate into their awarded pots, meaning fixed grants bought progressively less construction.

Which councils are still waiting?

Blackburn with Darwen council had eight projects funded through the Local Regeneration Fund; none is fully completed. All eight funded projects in Leeds are also yet to close.

Five of the Leeds projects sit in Morley:

• a refurbishment of Morley town hall
• a learning and skills centre
• the station gateway transport scheme
• a project to make the area greener and better connected
• the Heritage Investment Programme, which is only partly complete

Two projects in Holbeck — a green housing retrofit and a local centre scheme — also remain incomplete, as does the St Matthew's community centre and the Old Box Office project.

Was the design of the funds the problem?

Critics argue the fault lies less in money than in structure. Zoë Billingham, director of the IPPR North thinktank, said the Tories' Town Fund failed because it created a "begging bowl culture" in which councils had to approach Whitehall mandarins to access centrally controlled pots. "The levelling up – the 'hanging baskets strategy' as it was called – was short-term pots of money that could help clean up high streets and make tangible and important improvements," she said. "But that's different to long-term support for what high streets are and should be. No one would dismiss it, but you have to have a long-term plan rather than pots of money that run out."

Andy Haldane, former Bank of England chief economist, who has advised Burnham, called the levelling up fund "better than nothing" despite its problems. "It was in some ways the kind of worst of Whitehall. Because all the decisions were centralised. There looked to be degrees of pork barrel politics rolled into which places got it," he said. "It was all a bit sort of unsightly and pork barrelly."

Does Labour's replacement fix it?

Labour has launched the Pride in Place programme, which gives places longer-term funding with local boards deciding how it is spent, rather than forcing councils to compete for grants. Sarah Longlands, chief executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, warned the new model could face the same pitfalls as the Tories' towns fund. "It doesn't surprise me the projects are not finished. Capital money takes time – you just can't throw stuff up," she said. "This is my worry with the current programme of neighbourhood boards. We're dealing with a lot of capital money, and it can't be done quickly sometimes."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We are committed to driving good growth in every postcode, giving local leaders stability through long-term targeted funding. That's why we introduced our £5.8bn Pride in Place programme, giving the power to local people to decide how to invest this money to regenerate their own communities. And thanks to our Local Regeneration Fund, we're seeing more money from previous funding programmes being delivered quicker."

The ministry's claim of faster delivery rests on a fund whose predecessor schemes missed their deadlines by years — and with 821 projects still open and a March 2028 cut-off, the test of whether longer-term money beats competitive pots will not be settled before the next parliament is well underway.