In a development that will surprise absolutely no one who has ever dealt with government promises, most levelling up projects remain unfinished years after funding was allocated. The ambitious Conservative pledge to quickly spread opportunity across left-behind regions has, it turns out, moved at the speed of bureaucracy rather than a bulldozer.

Data released under freedom of information laws and manually reviewed by the Guardian reveals that 821 out of 1,347 levelling up projects were yet to be finalised as of May this year. That's 57% still in limbo. Across the UK, 73 council areas that had a bid accepted were yet to see a single project fully completed. The Guardian did identify 59 projects completed since the data was collected, so there's that.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have seen slower delivery despite having fewer projects overall. North-west England and Yorkshire also had low completion rates, but they were allocated the most projects to begin with - so at least they're consistent in their inconsistency.

The figures cover three main funds: the Future High Streets Fund (launched in 2018), Town Deals (2019) and the Levelling Up Fund (2021). The Future High Streets Fund was supposed to complete in March 2024, and the official deadline for spending all Towns Fund and Levelling Up Fund money was March 2026. Under Labour, the Levelling Up Fund and Town Deals were consolidated into the Local Regeneration Fund, with a new deadline of March 2028 - because why meet a deadline when you can just extend it?

Labour has also launched the Pride in Place programme, which gives places longer-term funding and lets local boards decide how it's spent, rather than making councils compete in a grants beauty pageant.

Jack Shaw, director of Groundwork Research, which supplied the data, said it showed a large gap between levelling up's intentions and delivery. "Despite significant funding, too many one-off commitments have failed to translate into substantive improvements in communities or local economies," he said. He called the Pride in Place programme a step forward because it provides communities with £2m a year over 10 years, giving places certainty and time. But he added that the government also needs to look at how investment can reach communities more quickly, so that funding announced at this budget can improve neighbourhoods over the course of this parliament - whether through new social infrastructure or a better public realm.

Blackburn with Darwen council had eight projects funded through the Local Regeneration Fund, none fully completed. In Leeds, all eight projects are yet to close. Five are in Morley: a refurbishment of Morley town hall, a learning and skills centre, the station gateway transport scheme, a project to make the area greener and better connected, and the Heritage Investment Programme (only partly completed). Two projects in Holbeck - a green housing retrofit and a local centre scheme - also remain incomplete, as does the St Matthew's community centre and Old Box Office project.

Part of the reason for delays across the UK has been inflation, which meant councils had to scale back or pause projects as increased costs ate into their awarded pots.

Zoë Billingham, director of IPPR North, said the Tories' Towns Fund failed because it created a "begging bowl culture" where councils had to approach Whitehall mandarins for centrally controlled funding. She said: "The levelling up - the 'hanging baskets strategy' as it was called - was short-term pots of money that could help clean up high streets and make tangible and important improvements. But that's different to long-term support for what high streets are and should be. No one would dismiss it, but you have to have a long-term plan rather than pots of money that run out."

Andy Haldane, former Bank of England chief economist who has advised Andy Burnham, said the levelling up fund was "better than nothing" despite its problems. "It was in some ways the kind of worst of Whitehall. Because all the decisions were centralised. There looked to be degrees of pork barrel politics rolled into which places got it," he said. "It was all a bit sort of unsightly and pork barrelly."

The national figures exclude 69 projects that were cancelled or merged into another existing project. Some projects are broader programmes of funding, parts of which may have been completed.

Sarah Longlands, chief executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, warned Labour's Pride in Place programme could face similar pitfalls. "It doesn't surprise me the [Towns Fund] projects are not finished. Capital money takes time - you just can't throw stuff up. This is my worry with the current programme of neighbourhood boards. We're dealing with a lot of capital money, and it can't be done quickly sometimes."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We are committed to driving good growth in every postcode, giving local leaders stability through long-term targeted funding. That's why we introduced our £5.8bn Pride in Place programme, giving the power to local people to decide how to invest this money to regenerate their own communities. And thanks to our Local Regeneration Fund, we're seeing more money from previous funding programmes being delivered quicker."