Bradford has missed out on more than £18 million of "good cause" funding compared to the UK average since the National Lottery came into existence.

While the UK average amount of lottery funding per person is £191.33, Bradford has received only £151.41.

Yet, despite that, Bradford is 141st out of a list of 436 local authorities, according to the first quarterly Calculation of Lottery Dispersal index.

It shows only 95 of the authorities gained above-average amounts. Initial findings by information services company j4b plc, which compiled the list, reveal that the places that received the largest funds per head of the population were the London boroughs of Greenwich, Westminster, City of London, Camden and Islington.

Greenwich gained an average of £3,216.78 per person. Leeds was the largest populated authority to have received under the average, at £157.83 per person.

But Jeremy Phillips, managing director of j4b's technology and information publishing, said it is not a simple question of the north-south divide.

He said: "The National Lottery Funding bodies judge each application on a competitive basis to ensure it can deliver on its promises, rather than just splitting the money between whoever asks for it."

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which is in charge of the distributors of lottery money, said: "There is sometimes an imbalance in lottery funding distribution but some of the big projects it has been spent on in London are national projects for everyone."

He said some of the organisations which receive funding have headquarters in London but the money is distributed around the country.

Councillor Simon Cooke, who holds the portfolio for regeneration, said the district got a "raw deal" for lottery funding but the Council had now appointed a lottery officer to co-ordinate bids.

"It is important we work hard to get the biggest amounts possible," he said. "The Government needs to look seriously at the people on the boards."

But Councillor Barry Thorne, deputy leader of the Labour group, said: "We have a lottery panel made up of all the parties but we have not met in over a year, there has been no co-ordination."