IT is really disappointing that so many areas of the North East failed to win levelling up money when many more areas in the south did so.

The sight of the Prime Minister flying in a private jet to Tory-held key seats in the north – like Hartlepool – to boast of the Government's largesse also sticks in the craw.

Even some red wall Tory MPs are expressing dismay at the way civil servants in London have rewarded the competing bids. Surely, if this is local money for local projects, the decisions on how it is spent should be taken locally, not by suits in London who don’t know Billingham from Billericay. That is what devolution should be about.

However, this observation works both ways. It has been said that the award of £19m to Rishi Sunak’s leafy, prosperous Richmond shows how gerrymandered the process has been, but those on the ground know that Catterick Garrison, where the money is to be spent, is not typical of the constituency and needs help urgently.

But this argument over petty pots of money to revive ailing high streets or to introduce a local green transport initiative misses the bigger argument about levelling up. Levelling up should be about addressing the big inequalities – why so many more children in the North East are brought up in poverty; why people in the north live shorter lives than those in the south due to health issues; why, as British Volt shows, there isn’t massive commitment to a new northern economy so the country doesn’t continue to revolve around London’s bankers.

Money for high streets is important in its own way, but what progress is the Government making on levelling up these really big gaps?