A regional news title has published an interactive cartoon to illustrate its investigation into the UK Government’s Levelling Up scheme.

The Northern Agenda’s editor Rob Parsons commissioned the online title’s regular cartoonist Graeme Bandeira to draw up a special design for an interactive data graphic after revealing that local councils have spent £23m of public money on consultants to bid against each other for Levelling Up funds.

Data journalist David Dubas-Fisher led the investigation, submitting Freedom of Information requests to 389 councils around the country.

His work was published as an exclusive in the Northern Agenda newsletter and on the Mirror website.

It also featured on a number of regional titles with coverage focused on the amount spent by their local councils.

Graeme’s cartoon depicted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with cash in front of a “£23m begging bowl”.

Readers were able to interact with the cartoon to see how much individual councils had spent on consultants to help plead for funds towards projects in their area.

Rob said: “David has done some fantastic work exposing the cost to councils of competing for Levelling Up funds, which is a story of critical interest to readers of the Northern Agenda.

“We wanted to present the data in a way that is easy to understand and I was delighted that Graeme was able to apply his artistic talents to the job so effectively.”