Levelling up
The heritage sector seems to have done pretty well out of the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund. This is money that would have gone to the EU’s reconstruction fund in the past, and would probably have been spent on projects in Poland or Romania. Instead, local authorities across the UK have been invited to bid for grants for projects that will ‘improve everyday life across the UK, including regenerating town centre and high streets, upgrading local transport, and investing in cultural and heritage assets’.
Since 2021, some £3.8 billion has been allocated to 216 projects. In Wales alone, £17 million has been granted for the regeneration of Holyhead to encourage visitors and local people to explore the remarkably intact Roman fort and medieval St Cybi’s Church (one of six churches being upgraded to welcome pilgrims along the 133-mile-long North Wales Pilgrim’s Way). Another £20 million will be spent to regenerate three industrial heritage sites in the Lower Swansea Valley, including the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks and Swansea Museum, and money will also go to upgrading the former National Slate Museum in Llanberis to form the new Museum of North Wales.
You can’t please everyone all of the time, of course, and critics have attacked the scheme, saying that decisions should have been made locally, not in Whitehall. Some also question the allocation of funds to the south-east, deeming it to be ‘prosperous’, although it actually does have some of the UK’s most-deprived communities. More worrying is the fact that prices have risen substantially since bids were invited and budgets first compiled, so there are concerns about whether the grants are now adequate and whether some of the schemes will ever be completed.
Choosing a field: specialisms in archaeology