The government has finally published the prioritisation methodology for its £4.8bn levelling up fund, prompting protest from many who suspect it is designed to favour areas that are electorally important to the Conservative party. Experts and politicians have criticised the methodology for not incorporating social deprivation measures and giving a large weight to factors more common in rural areas. Since its announcement in the recent Budget, the fund has been heavily criticised for the way areas have been prioritised, with relatively affluent places such as chancellor Rishi Sunak’s constituency of Richmond given a higher priority than more deprived urban areas such as Barnsley, Hackney and Sheffield. LGC analysis found that three quarters of areas given the top priority have at least one Conservative MP.