Only 4 boroughs think their local area has improved – and they are all in London

Only four council areas in Britain think their local area has improved in recent years – and they are all in London.

Analysis by data company YouGov reveals that many of the target areas for the first round of the Government’s Levelling Up funding that invests in local communities do no think their local community has changed at all, or think their local area has declined.

Four London boroughs were the only exception. 38% of Hackney residents polled felt their area had “generally improved”, as well as 36% of Islington residents, 36% of Southwark residents and 34% of Tower Hamlets residents.

However, the analysis also revealed a large variation in how residents from different areas of London feel about their local area. Havering was one of the areas with the strongest sense of decline, with 48% of participants feeling their area had declined, with only Stoke-on-Trent having a stronger sense of decline at 49%.

Residents of Barking and Dagenham, London’s most deprived borough, were most likely to see their local area as somewhere to get away from, with more than half of people in the area feeling as such. 39% of Croydon residents also voted for this option.

The Government gave out £2billion worth of levelling up funding this week to places such as Yorkshire and Lancashire. But London has received more investment than those in Yorkshire and the North East combined, and projects in the South East have been allocated almost twice as much as those in the North East.

Lisa Nandy, shadow levelling up secretary, has criticised the fund. ‘The Levelling Up Fund is in chaos, beset by delays and allegations of favouritism,’ she said.

‘It is time to end this Hunger Games-style contest where communities are pitted against one another and Whitehall ministers pick winners and losers.’

However, the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says two thirds of funding has gone to the north of England and denied the levelling up spending is an example of ‘pork barrel politics’.