Following disappointing news that North West Durham's Levelling Up Bids failed, Richard wrote to Durham County Council to see how we can improve next time. Commenting, he said:
"Like you, after many recent successes with tens of million of funding from central Government for everything from Shotley Bridge Community Hospital to the Schools Rebuilding Fund, I am very disappointed that we didn’t get funding in Round Two of the Levelling Up Fund for the Three Towns Area.
"I have written to Durham County Council’s Chief Executive expressing my disappointing that the bid for the Three Towns Area that Durham County Council pulled together didn’t pass the civil servants to the shortlisted stage for ministerial decision.
"I am hopefully that, like many of the areas that bid unsuccessfully in Round One but were successful in Round Two, DCC will learn from the feedback the get from the Department of Housing and Levelling Up and improve the bid for Round 3.
It was good to see that more broadly, the region got good funding packages worth over £100million the second highest per head funding of any region in England."