The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has urged the government to give local (parish and town) councils direct access to apply for levelling up funding.
NALC responded to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee inquiry into levelling up funding. NALC stated that the government should act quickly to give local councils the same access to apply for central government funding (including for levelling up) as principal authorities.
NALC also highlighted the weakness of the government's current system of assessing deprivation which was considered inaccurate and often did not identify the most deprived communities in many of England's parished areas.