The appointment of Michael Gove as secretary of state for levelling up last September was an apparent statement of intent by Boris Johnson. His most effective and energetic minister had been tasked with delivering his administration’s flagship policy, on which its prospects of re-election were believed to depend.
The phrase “levelling up” has been criticised for its vagueness and lack of definition. But the political logic at work in its formulation was always crystal clear. The Brexit referendum and its aftermath led swathes of voters in post-industrial Labour heartlands to vote for a Conservative government. In order to consolidate the support of the red wall, Mr Johnson pledged to rebalance an economy that suffers from a higher level of regional inequality than any comparable country. However opportunistically the prime minister stumbled upon it, this is a praiseworthy and vital agenda. As Mr Gove said on Wednesday in the House of Commons, parts of the nation have felt “overlooked and undervalued” for decades.
The long-awaited levelling up white paper was supposed to lay out how this gigantic challenge would be met. It failed miserably to do so. Instead, Mr Gove offered a set of unresourced aspirations to be delivered by 2030 in areas such as health, transport, living standards, crime and “wellbeing”. These 12 “missions” to level up were coupled with a commitment to greater devolution across England, but no significant new powers were offered to mayors or local authorities. For the rest, it was mostly ad hoc, unstrategic stuff. Local regeneration projects were announced for 20 new towns and cities, starting with Sheffield and Wolverhampton, but the money appears to have been recycled. The pledge to increase R&D spending outside London and the south-east is certainly welcome, as is some money to improve the quality of parks and fund activities for young people. But Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal this was not.
Such an anaemic end product after months of speculation and delay is profoundly disappointing, but hardly unexpected. It has long been clear that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has no intention of spending the kind of money necessary to level up regions scarred by accelerated deindustrialisation under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, and hammered by austerity under David Cameron. Mr Sunak’s refusal in November to fund the “northern powerhouse” high-speed rail line linking Bradford, Leeds and Manchester spoke volumes. Having unsuccessfully pleaded with the Treasury for proper resources, Mr Gove has been reduced to setting impressive-sounding long-term targets while offering little idea of how they will be met. Mr Johnson, a diminished prime minister beset by scandal, is in no position to twist his chancellor’s arm.
The mismatch between what has been offered and what is needed is dispiriting. In a recent study, the IPPR thinktank noted that allocations in 2021 from the levelling-up fund added up to £32 per person in the north of England. That compares with a £413 per person drop in council spending on services during the austerity decade. Mr Johnson himself, in a speech in July, agreed that there “has to be a catalytic role for government” in levelling up, and cited the example of Germany’s transformation of its eastern regions since reunification. Between 1990 and 2014, successive German governments spent £71bn a year supporting private investment, building infrastructure and increasing productivity. That is what premier-league levelling up looks like. The government – however fluent Mr Gove’s rhetoric and deft his presentational skills – is playing in a far lower league. Electoral fate presented this administration with the opportunity to rectify some of the damage done by its Tory predecessors in post-industrial Britain. Wednesday’s underwhelming, underfunded and overhyped white paper will not do that.
