Tory mayor Andy Street says levelling up policy should trust local people more

West Midlands mayor believes it shouldn't only be up to civil servants in London to make project funding decisions

The Conservative mayor of the West Midlands has criticised the government's levelling up policy for being too centralised, and said he chose to put place before party" when he spoke out on the issue.

Last week Andy Street broke ranks with his party as he labelled the government's levelling up plans as a broken begging bowl culture", and said he was disappointed more funding hadn't been allocated to the West Midlands.