How levelling up hinges on private sector support in Yorkshire to succeed – Simon French

Let’s take each of these criticisms in turn – starting with the perceived lack of new ideas. The success of levelling up the UK’s economy and transforming UK regional inequalities will not hinge on silver bullets never previously imagined.

Levelling up risks becoming levelling down the North – The Yorkshire Post says

After all, this is not a new problem for the UK, nor indeed globally, where deindustrialisation and migration flows have generated left-behind regions.

But levelling up stands its best chance if case studies of what has worked in previous eras, or in other countries, are repeated. The good news is that Westminster politicians appear aware of this. The White Paper itself is packed full of contemporary examples from East Germany, Barcelona, northern France, the United States and closer to home with east London’s Docklands.

Whilst some of the case studies from antiquity have been ridiculed, those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat its mistakes. Readers of the White Paper hoping for policies they had never heard of before should feel relieved, not despondent.

Having spent more than a decade in Westminster early in my career, I can attest that successful transformations are rarely born out of innovation and novelty. They are about establishing what works and sticking to it.

As the political cycle inevitably waxes and wanes, Yorkshire, the North of England and the Midlands must hope that leaders resist the temptation to tinker with the 12 missions outlined in the White Paper.

The second criticism surrounds the lack of new money. The levelling up agenda will not succeed off the back of public money alone. Yes, there have been deep-seated inequalities in transport spending and in research and development allocation that the White Paper sets out to redress.

But it will be the combination of public funds with private investment that is the only way to make this agenda sustainable. The levelling up soundbite will eventually outlive its political use and at that point stable private finance is needed if progress is to be sustained.

It is very clear from regions that have successfully narrowed income, education and health disparities that support from the private sector is a key feature. The White Paper’s most effective role at this stage is to signal to private businesses and high-skilled workers that this agenda is here to stay.

Being born and brought up in East Yorkshire, I have a personal interest in this agenda that long predates the levelling up terminology. My employer, Panmure Gordon – an investment bank with long-established connections in Yorkshire and across the North – last month opened a new office in Leeds.

This move is founded on our view that institutional investors – many from outside the UK – have a strong desire to back the best businesses across the North. These businesses have been underserved by years of centralised financial services, largely based in London.

Some of the old clichés about the North as a manufacturing-heavy economy with profit margins vulnerable to foreign competition don’t stand up to scrutiny. We are increasingly finding the best-in-class businesses are founded on the region’s strong historical roots but are fusing this with technology and the creative industries.

Construction and high-value manufacturing companies that are innovating to embrace the net zero economy are exactly the sort of companies that investors are looking to back right now. The model of the North as the engine room of the UK built economy has not been lost, it is being updated by a generation of entrepreneurs for the challenges of the 21st century.

So as the Levelling Up White Paper now moves from vision to delivery, it deserves better support than some of the lazy criticisms that have characterised the response so far.

Sustained commitment from across the political spectrum to what works, rather than merely what polls well in marginal constituencies, is key. As is the support of private investors to complement public spending.

Combined, that will be a powerful tailwind to an agenda which benefits the entire UK.

Simon French is Chief Economist 
at Panmure Gordon.

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