The Levelling Up White Paper is a flagship document underpinned by 12 missions in four broad areas and driven by six essential categories of human capital, five mutually reinforcing pillars, and 49 performance indicators. It contains thorough analysis and clear, sensible aims for policy development. The White Paper is optimistic and talks much about tackling deep-rooted inequalities, but great challenges lie in the way of levelling up being successfully delivered.
The purpose of the Levelling Up agenda is to define the approach we will take in meeting these huge challenges and the practical steps we will take to level up the country. However, the White Paper failed miserably in doing this. It overlooks and undervalues the nation as a whole, containing elaborate charts and numerical figures to indicate the gaps that need to be bridged but without clearly outlining how we intend to do so.
Early in the White Paper, ministers recognise the differences between the range of cities in the UK with respect to personal earnings and savings. As much as it is vital to understand spatial polarisation, it is important to note that the wealthiest geographical areas do not necessarily equate to the happiest. This means that contrary to common belief, wealthy areas aren’t always contributing the most to boosting productivity and reducing inequalities, specifically so within the fields of education and health & care.
The White Paper reads ideologically and is a programmatic transformational paper along with a standardised political budget to synergise 2022-24 requirements.
The risk with the Levelling Up White Paper is that it subsumes existing policy. The paper contains several eye-catching policy reform agendas such as ‘Innovation Accelerators’ and 20 ‘Boris Boroughs’. However, beyond announcing the comparative cities across the nation where these schemes will be undertaken, there are very few details available on what the schemes consist of. The government must develop these proposals further to ensure the venture is successful and be able to move on to the next steps of delivering on levelling up. This should be in parallel with the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill to extend the foundation for setting devolution.
The most positive element of the paper is the clear setting of the devolution framework, offering power distribution at a local level depending on the existing leadership model and proposals for future changes to it. The progress on the devolution side of the Levelling Up agenda has begun with reasonable momentum. It, therefore, warrants a progress update from the government to remove the risk of critical actions being missed out in this area.
Levelling up is described as “a moral, social and economical programme for the whole government.” The robust and joint-working of the public, private and voluntary services are essential to it. The White Paper addresses the challenges of the aftermath of Brexit and the 2019 general election. The areas focused on within the paper are urgent challenges for the government, but the wider concern is far greater, which remains undefined.
The way to look at the paper is to understand the scale of the challenge and the need for clear actions to be taken. It shows the coordination of the actions that is required to respond to the need for levelling up, such as empowering local leaders, encouraging private-sector engagement, accountability and channelling the requisite funding where it is needed.
The White Paper over-promises but it needs actions to be taken within and outside of its scope to deliver on those promises. If the gaps within society are to be closed, we need far more in terms of action than what is being described within the report.
Key Points:
• While the Levelling UpWhite Paper promises much, it is lacking in real substance.
• Devolution has been a levelling up success to date, but continual progress monitoring is vital.
• Levelling up will need to go beyond the contents of theWhite Paper if it is to be achieved.
This article originally appeared in The Leaders Council’s special report on ‘The Levelling Up agenda’, published on November 30, 2022. Read the full special report here.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
