England’s most “left behind” neighbourhoods will remain places where “human flourishing is limited and potential squandered” without changes in government levelling up policy, an all-party group of MPs and peers has said.
The neighbourhoods, where 2.4 million people live, could even see inequalities worsening over the next two decades without reform.
The all-party parliamentary group for left behind neighbourhoods published a report on Wednesday seen as the first in-depth inquiry into how the government’s levelling up policies are working on the ground.
There are 225 neighbourhoods in England identified as “left behind”. They are inhabited by about 4% of the population and are places which experience high levels of deprivation and community need and low levels of investment and resources. Often, they are housing estates on the edge of post-industrial towns.
The new report says successive governments have not recognised the scale of the challenges in the neighbourhoods and have not properly engaged with the people who live there. They are places which have slipped through the cracks of levelling up funding.
The report argues that, for levelling up to be successful, it must be led by local people and reflect local needs – “not follow a national template”.
It must “entrust decision-making – including funding – to communities, not Whitehall or the town hall”.
Paul Howell, the Tory MP for Sedgefield and co-chair of the all-party group, said policymakers too often talked about doing things “to” communities or “with” communities.
The correct approach had to be to “give communities the capacity to do things themselves”, he said.
Howell said the government’s levelling up programme needed to support left behind neighbourhoods “by design rather than chance” if they are to become less left behind.
“Without corrective action, levelling up will not make a difference in the areas that need it most,” he said.
“We are at a crucial moment for the most challenged neighbourhoods, and decisions made in the next few years will define their prospects for decades to come.
“Decisive action is now urgently needed to save the levelling up agenda from the strategic drift which threatens to waste the significant political will which has been generated in recent years.”
Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour MP for Hull North and the other co-chair, said the government’s approach did not sufficiently recognise the scale of the challenge in left behind neighbourhoods.
“The recommendations in our report are designed to put these neighbourhoods, and their residents, front and centre of a reformed approach to levelling up so that the aims we all want to see can be realised,” she said.
The new report describes society being at a turning point for left behind neighbourhoods with “three possible futures”: falling further behind; stalled progress “where they are only running to stand still”; or transformation and “leaping forward”.
“They can continue to be places where human flourishing is limited and potential squandered. Or these places can become a cornerstone of our national recovery from a decade of challenges, and a new source of resilience for the even greater challenges ahead.”
The report’s conclusions include calling for faster progress on creating a community wealth fund, which would allow spending decisions to be made by local residents.
Funds should be allocated to the left behind neighbourhoods on a non-competitive basis and managed where they are held, the report says.
It also argues for an enhanced community right-to-buy programme which would allow communities to save assets like pubs, clubs and green spaces.
The all-party inquiry into the government’s levelling up agenda was set up after publication of a long-awaited white paper in February 2022.
“People are so frustrated, angry and upset”
Barbara Slasor remembers once being labelled as someone who was “hard to reach” and it still grates. “I wasn’t hard to reach, I was someone who was very easy to ignore.”
There are still too many people in that category and they will remain there, she argues, unless local people in the most deprived neighbourhoods are trusted with the money and power to decide for themselves what is best for their communities.
Slasor is community development lead at the Gaunless Gateway Big Local partnership, which covers a three-mile area in south-west Bishop Auckland, a County Durham market town hit hard by the end of mining and the closure of factories.
The patch has high levels of deprivation across every metric, with 35% of children living in poverty, compared with the national average of 20%. It also has double the national average level of antisocial behaviour incidents.
But when the Guardian visits, Slasor and others do not really want to talk about how bad or miserable things can be.
They want to talk about all the good things happening when you allow local residents to take decisions, whether that is the buzz of activity in the community centre, the success of the thrift shop, a long-term creative arts partnership or the bursaries given out for life-changing driving lessons.
“We have been to meetings [in other places] where people are so frustrated, angry and upset because they don’t feel they can get their voice heard. What we’ve enabled here is people getting their voice heard,” she says.
There have been difficulties along the way and mistakes made, but there is a collective pride in what has been achieved in Bishop Auckland.
For Lesley Watts, coming to the community centre has been “a godsend”.
“I first came here because of mental health issues and I was welcomed in not just by the staff but the community.
“They didn’t ask any questions, they just made me a brew and from then on I’ve made new friends and it has helped me a lot.”
Watts is a regular at the craft group and the weekly meet-and-eat sessions. “I have always been a bit wary about places like this, I’ve dealt with things on my own, but since coming here it has been amazing.”
She has also received help to pay for driving lessons, which she says will make such a difference.
“I have an autistic son so to be able to take him places, to be able to do things with him, to get back into work eventually would be amazing.”
