The Levelling-Up White Paper Promises, Promises!

In a long-awaited and ambitious plan which it is claimed will ‘transform the UK’, the Government has set out its long-term strategy for ‘levelling up’ the country, by spreading opportunity and prosperity to all parts of the UK. ??

The ‘Levelling Up’ White Paper launched on 2nd February, by Michael Gove, looks forward over two Parliamentary terms to 2030 in setting out its 12 integrated ‘missions’. ?Although considerable long-term funding was announced 9 months ago within the UK Community Renewal Fund (￡220 million), the ‘Levelling-Up fund’ (￡4.8bn) and the Community Ownership Fund (￡10 million), the current announcement has not actually attracted any new money from the Treasury.

The main focus of the strategy will be to:

·??????Direct the Government’s educational efforts on the most disadvantaged parts of the UK,

·??????Extend research and development to areas outside the south-east,

·??????Bring 5G broadband to most areas of the country,

·??????Give 100,000’s more people high quality training and skills,

·??????Narrow the disparities in healthy life expectancy,

·??????Halve the number of poor-quality rented homes,

·??????Support 20 town and city centres, beginning with Sheffield and Wolverhampton.

These targets will be monitored through a suite of public metrics, reported annually and overseen by an Advisory Council. However, there is no mention of a measure for housing delivery or more important for housing land release which is essential to provide the homes which people need.

Although overall funding will be controlled through the Treasury, distribution of resources is intended to be channelled through devolved Mayoral authorities to ‘Local Leaders’.?9 areas are to be invited to agree new County Deals – those in Cornwall, Derbyshire, Devon, Plymouth & Torbay, Durham, Hull & East Yorkshire Leicestershire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk are first in line. There could also be a new Mayoral authority for York & North Yorkshire and for the North-East.

Comment.

The scale of funding devoted to the ‘levelling up’ initiative looks unlikely to make a significant and immediate impression on regional inequalities, not least because the disparities are long-term, well-established and deeply entrenched and the scale of funding falls short of past EU subsidies in all regions.?

The north-south divide has widened since the abandonment of regional and strategic planning in 2011 and it will take decades to redress the disparities, which may not be welcomed by the more prosperous parts of London and the South-east. However, the move towards local control of spending with the possibility of strategic planning may yet help to re-distribute resources more efficiently within sub-regions – subject to those areas adopting a mayoral governance format.

The shift of resources from ‘maximum affordability’ areas – in practice London and the South-east -with much of the ￡1.8bn brownfield funding being diverted to the North and the Midlands, signals a major shift of housing distribution from south to north.?But paradoxically, this may heighten price disparities as housing shortfalls grow further in the South-East and theoretically ease further north. It remains to be seen whether additional brownfield funding in more depressed areas will yield more affordable housing in areas where viability is more marginal.

There is little mention of planning policy or housing distribution within the Levelling-Up White Paper. This must wait for the new Planning Reform Bill and possible review of the Standard Housing Methodology expected within months.

One cannot fault the overall objective to redress country-wide inequalities in incomes, opportunities and service levels both in generating greater efficiency within the national economy and creating more fairness in society. However, for the less prosperous provinces to catch-up economically to please the ‘red wall’ constituencies, the more affluent ‘blue wall’ constituencies will need to fall back in comparison, which may yet prove very unpopular with the home-counties Conservative MP’s.