THE Government is already having to defend its long-awaited Levelling Up white paper – outlining plans and cash to regenerate disadvantaged communities across the region – before it is even published.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has promised that the new plans, to be announced in detail this week, will “breathe fresh life into disadvantaged communities” across England, including parts of the North East.

Mr Gove said money and power would be more But as details of the paper’s contents were released at the weekend, opposition members said it isn’t “worth the paper it is written on” and pointed out that cash being pledged was not new money as it had already been announced.

Wolverhampton and Sheffield will be the first of 20 areas selected to benefit from a “radical new regeneration programme” launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

The chosen locations will be prioritised for a £1.5 billion Brownfield Fund made available from April 2022.

Pressed on where the money was coming from, the department yesterday clarified that the cash to fund the work was allocated by the Treasury last year.

It is part of a £1.8 billion sum for brownfield regeneration promised by the Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the last Budget.

The work will be spearheaded by the Government’s housing agency Homes England, which will be “refocused” to deliver on the levelling up agenda.

The DHLUC said the areas would benefit from developments combining “housing, leisure, and business in sustainable, walkable, beautiful new neighbourhoods”.

Tees Valley and North of Tyne are among seven Mayoral Combined Authorities that will share £120 million of funding to transform derelict brownfield sites into “vibrant places where people want to live and work”.

A further £30 million is being awarded to Tees Valley, Greater Manchester, and West Midlands on disused brownfield land and councils are pledge funds to release derelict sites for housing.

A separate £1.5 billion Levelling Up Home Building Fund will also be launched this week.

It will provide loans to small and medium-sized builders and developers to deliver 42,000 homes, with the vast majority going outside London and the South East.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said: “We are on a mission to regenerate the nation, transforming derelict areas in our towns and cities into thriving places people are proud to live and work in.

“We are refocusing Homes England and empowering local leaders to support levelling up, delivering Kings Cross style transformational regeneration projects across the country – starting in Wolverhampton and Sheffield.

“This huge investment in infrastructure and regeneration will spread opportunity more evenly and help to reverse the geographical inequalities which still exist in the UK.”

But Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary, accused the Government of handing out “rehashed pots of money and policies”.

She said: “The limit of this Government’s ambition for Britain can’t surely be this? Rehashed pots of money and policies for just 20 places. High streets will only thrive when people have money in their pockets to spend.

“We need good jobs, decent wages, genuinely affordable housing and action to deal with the unfolding cost of living crisis so people can spend in their local economy and young people no longer have to get out to get on. Instead, they’ve handed a few local areas a fiver and nicked a tenner.”

She said the regeneration funding was “very small beer” and said the Government’s approach is “downright insulting”, adding that the White Paper “frankly doesn’t appear to be worth the paper that it’s written on”.