Levelling Up has been a defining mission of Boris Johnson's Government, but with political turbulence and a new prime minister soon to be announced – will Levelling Up still be a defining mission?
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Levelling up is certainly not a new concept. There has been regional disparity in the UK for some time and has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is because of this that the Conservative party set out in their 2019 manifesto about trying to reduce economic imbalances in the country, coining the term 'Levelling Up'.
From this, the Chancellor (at the time) Rishi Sunak announced in the 2020 Spending Review a £4 billion funding pot dedicated to levelling up efforts. This fund is dedicated to investing ‘in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities.’. Thus, the levelling up agenda, and the funding it brings, is incredibly important – especially in the post-covid recovery of the UK.
This funding will ultimately be used to achieve the ambitious 12 ‘missions’ outlined in the policy white paper, Levelling Up the United Kingdom., reducing regional inequality through investment in housing, transport, and skills to name a few.
Transport has benefits that are directly correlated to people. A good transport system can provide a positive benefit for both people and business, providing access to jobs, supporting the economy, as well as unlocking new areas for development and providing the opportunity for innovation. However, our transport systems have been failing to deliver the outcomes we need, and as such, the UK’s regional disparity has become even more fractured.
CIHT outlined in Better planning, better transport, better places and Improving Local Highways that our current transport systems and networks are failing to deliver the outcomes we need.
Levelling up can refocus the transport sector, ensuring that not only does it play a key role in the Levelling Up agenda. It also is a critical component to achieving the transition to net zero, with transport being the biggest emitter by sector in the UK. Not only is Levelling Up key for transport, transport is key to Levelling Up. Without transport, Levelling Up cannot succeed.
This is why the Levelling Up agenda must continue, regardless of political uncertainty.
The Levelling up agenda has a timeline that spans to 2030 (and perhaps beyond) and the Government declaring this an ambitious plan. However, it was only in 2022 – three years after the manifesto announcement – that a White Paper was finally published. Since then, a Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill has set more of the context for the agenda, but it is still doing the rounds and has yet to be enacted.
There is no shortage of criticism towards this agenda coming from all angles and, so far, its failure to deliver. The National Audit Office’s (NAO) report, Supporting Local Economic Growth, levelled heavy criticism at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and its delivery of public funds. Referencing the Levelling Up Fund, the NAO detailed how the Department lacked scrutiny and did not have an adequate evidence base on which to deliver the funding. On top of this, the government deemed it suitable to trim the three standard stages for business case assessment down to one.
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee also published a scathing report that detailed how DLUHC composed the awarding principles for the first £1.7 billion round of funding only after ministers knew the shortlisted bidders. The report said that this was not a new approach for DLUHC and that it has a "past form" of using this approach.
Perhaps some might say that this might have been somewhat excusable if the funding was getting into the hands of those who need it, but it hasn’t. In fact, those regions that need the funding most have not seen anything distributed at all and have no clue as to why they were not successful.
DLUHC’s role is, working with other government departments, responsible for “raising productivity and empowering places so that everyone across the country can benefit from levelling up”. The poor productivity in the delivery of the white paper, and the bill, as well as the failure to deliver the funding adequately certainly does not convey much passion, drive, or commitment to this agenda that the Government would have you believe.
The poor delivery of the funding is being compounded by the effects being felt not only from a post-covid recovery, a cost-of-living crisis, and failing transport infrastructure. We need to see delivery ramped up, with funding being prioritised to those schemes that are actually 'shovel-ready. By doing this, the Government might have a chance to salvage current progress.
The 2020 Spending Review saw the Chancellor committing around £4 billion worth of funding to the Levelling Up agenda, is this enough? The 2020 spending review announcement, made in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, was aimed at facilitating the Conservative party’s manifesto ambitions as well as easing the effects of the pandemic. Since then, the outlook has not improved. The UK now finds itself in a cost-of-living crisis, and soaring inflation meaning that spending power does not go as far as it used to.
The effects of this are already starting to be seen, with infrastructure spending being re-evaluated across the board. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) recommended that an extra £31 billion in levelling up funding will be needed for cities outside of London, highlighting the inadequacy of the current funding available.
Moreover, there needs to be a simplified mechanism to deliver funding instead of the current system of competitive funding pots. The NIC’s chair, Sir John Armitt, said there needs to be:
urgent and fundamental reform of how local transport funding is allocated, with a shift from short term funding pots over which councils bid against each other, to long term devolved funding deals.
The failure to deliver this funding efficiently can be seen through the fact that there has currently been only one funding round completed, with the second one currently underway.
Long-term, inflation-linked funding is something that CIHT called for repeatedly, and there has never been a time when it has been more important.
The ‘missions’ set out in the Levelling Up White Paper are ambitious, coupled with the climate emergency; economic pressures, and a war in Ukraine certainly do not make this easy. Levelling up must succeed though, and there needs to be enough funding to do so.
The next instalment of CIHT Monthly Masterclass series will discuss the different approaches being taken across the UK to promote regional success and level up our communities.
The UK suffers from a range of regional inequality that prevents our communities from achieving their full potential. To unlock regional success, the highways and transport sector must play a leading role in helping to level up society. Utilising a broad range of examples, this webinar will highlight:
The Masterclass will also explore the critical role that Sub-National Transport Bodies (STBs) play in unlocking the potential of our regions.
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