It may have been dominating conversation in Westminster on Wednesday, but questions about levelling up were met with blank stares among shoppers on Wednesfield’s high street in Wolverhampton.
Most had never heard of the concept, while of those who had, many doubted it would do much to improve their quality of life.
“Does levelling up just mean the whole country will be the same level of poor together?” said Gary Green, 56, who has worked on the street’s fruit and veg stall for 22 years. “Whatever we gain in levelling up, we’ll lose more with taxes going up, energy prices are devastating everybody. They are 100% out of touch. How can anyone make a living and survive when everything is going through the roof?”
Just outside the city centre, Wednesfield sits in Wolverhampton North East, one of a number of former “red wall” seats that voted Conservative in the last general election. Green said he had “voted Conservative my whole life but I wouldn’t vote for them again”, adding that he doubted levelling up would do enough to cut through anger over the cost of living and the long-term economic impact of Covid.
The city of Wolverhampton has been promoted by the government as a key beneficiary of its new strategy, and was one of the first areas to be prioritised for a share of a £1.5bn brownfield fund. It was home to the first new government HQ outside London, when the housing ministry opened a site there last year. “We want a government as focused on Wolverhampton as it is on Westminster,” proclaimed the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, on Wednesday morning before the publication of a white paper.
Ian Brookfield, the Labour leader of Wolverhampton council, said: “It would be cheerless of me not to welcome it, we’ve been starved for so long. Of course I’m grateful for anything that we receive. But will it make up for the past 10 years of budget cuts? Probably not.”
In Wednesfield, many shoppers were also sceptical about the real-world impact of the policy. Sharon Gunter, 55, a retail worker, said she knew little about the white paper and would “believe it when I see it happening”.
“It’s a lot of talk. I’m very disheartened with things at the moment,” she said. “They’ll say they’re doing this [levelling up] to try to distract from what’s going on and make people forget about the parties scandal.”
Others, although sketchy on the details, were more hopeful about the potential of the levelling up agenda to bring some needed investment to the area. “It sounds positive, I’m optimistic,” said Adil Chutoo, 67, a nurse. “I feel they are trying to help. We need more investment around here, people are struggling. The traditional high street is gradually dying. The intentions are there; whether they become actions, we don’t know.”
Kim Denny, 60, shopping with her mother, said: “You look around and things aren’t the same as they used to be. Shops are shutting, this used to be a lovely little vibrant town and it’s not like that any more. So I think levelling up sounds like a great idea, I just don’t know much about it.”
Brookfield said he was not surprised that so many people knew little about what levelling up means. “This is infrastructure-led levelling up, it is not people-based. People doesn’t know what it means for them and just wave it away,” he said.
“There’s going to be cataclysmic events later on this year with the energy crisis and cost of living. Of course we could do with a new building here and there, but its people who need to be looked after first.”
