Projects and funding
An MP can help secure funding; the council decides how it is spent and delivered. So each project shows money announced, spent and delivered separately.
Transforming the visitor economy — Levelling Up Fund Round 1
Announced 27 October 2021 (Autumn Budget): £20,000,000.00 — a round £20m, per the government's own published bidders list.
| Scheme | Grant | Spent to March 2025 | Status | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portsmouth International Port — cruise & ferry terminal | £11.3m | £11.3m | Complete | Well-sourced |
| Linear Park (Hilsea) — including Hilsea Lido refurbishment | £7.8m | £4.9m | Underway | Reconstructed from capital programme |
| Investment in football facilities, including changing facilities | £1.0m | £1.0m | Complete | Unverified as a LUF component |
Tracing this £20m is now unexpectedly hard. Portsmouth City Council's live news archive contains only 2026 items — the award announcements, the start-of-works releases and the completion release that carried a Hilsea cost figure all return 404. The council's dedicated Levelling Up Fund page redirects to a generic landing page. The live Lido and Hilsea Lines pages say only "funded by the UK Government", naming neither the fund nor any figure. The award is now traceable mainly through gov.uk, the council-owned port's own website, and capital-programme appendices. The definitive per-project split exists in the council's unpublished Memorandum of Understanding with MHCLG, which would require a Freedom of Information request to obtain.