Exclusive: FoI requests reveal £2.5bn was spent out of £10.6bn fund for three main local regeneration schemes

The Conservatives spent only a quarter of the money they allocated to levelling up, according to freedom of information requests that underline how Michael Gove’s flagship regional spending scheme failed to live up to expectations.

The previous government allocated £10.6bn to the three main schemes under the levelling up programme, which provided funding for regeneration projects as diverse as leisure centres and local transport networks.