Vast swathes of the north will remain left behind after the government’s levelling-up white paper offered no new money and few concrete plans about how to revive the region, business leaders, academics and politicians have said.
Michael Gove published the 400-page landmark document on Wednesday and vowed the government’s flagship policies would "change the economic model” of the UK for good.
The proposals include “12 big missions” which the levelling-up secretary said would begin tackling regional inequalities by 2030. Among them are aims for better-connected transport, more pay for workers, improved education, a reduction in violent crime and even increased life expectancy. A devolution deal, the paper says, will be offered to every region in England that wants one, potentially giving local areas both extra cash and extra powers
But there are already concerns the ambitions come with neither the cash nor the detailed road map to actually turn them into reality.
“Some of the targets that we have seen in what has been released are very ambitious targets and definitely something we’d welcome,” said Erica Roscoe, senior research fellow with the IPPR North think tank. “But the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle right now, is how government is going to set about achieving and funding those targets.
“Regional inequalities [in the UK] have been established over decades, and the only way to tackle them has to be through long-term, sustainable plans which we are yet to see any detail of.”
Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, suggested the paper was a mixed bag, welcoming the commitments to devolution, manufacturing and investment in research and development but warning some parts of the north would be “significant losers”.
He said: “The hard case is there will be less money for research and development in the north of England post-Brexit than there was under Theresa May before we left the EU. That is a fact. The Shared Prosperity Fund [designed to replace EU funding] leaves the region with less money coming in than before.
“So this white paper offers a few sweeties to make up for that – like the innovation ccelerator scheme in Greater Manchester which is great for that area – but a lot of areas, like West Yorkshire, haven’t been given those sweeties. They’ve been ignored in anything other than general terms. ‘So what’s happening is they are seeing a real cut in funding. They’re not being levelled up, they’re being left further behind. They’re getting shafted.”
Speaking on BBC4’s Today programme, Tracy Brabin, the Labour Mayor of West Yorkshire, said that while the ambition of the paper “pleased” her, she remained sceptical about the lack of financing.
“Lots of ambition, lots of hope,” she said. “But unless you actually have the money and the resources, you are going to be struggling."
It was a view echoed by Lisa Nandy, the Wigan MP and shadow secretary for levelling up.
“We’ve had two and a half years of big promises and big talk from the government, and what we’ve just been handed this morning seems to boil down to a bunch of recycled money and repackaged announcements,” she said. “I think for most people around the country this is deeply, deeply disappointing. No new money, no new powers.”
Conservatives in the north, however, were, unsurprisingly, more welcoming of the paper.
Jake Berry, MP for for Rossendale and Darwen as well as chairperson of the Tories’ Northern Research Group, said it “demonstrates that the best ideas to drive the future economy of the North are derived from the North”.
Meanwhile, Richard Bell, the Conservative deputy leader of Durham Council, also praised the document as “great news” for his area.
“A devolution deal will provide us with the opportunity to really deliver on the levelling up agenda and to look at how we can make best use of our existing resources and any new powers that are devolved to us,” he said.
