The ultimate prize

“If levelling up isn’t about education, what is levelling up for?” posed Mr Halfon just hours before a significant critique emerged of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s last Budget.

Why Boris Johnson’s last hope is levelling up – Justine Greening

And this assertion, which came as a year-long study set up by The Times found that the economy could see a £125bn boost per year if the education system was overhauled, is more advanced than the Government’s position.

More than two years after the last election, the Levelling Up White Paper remains as elusive as honest answers over the Downing Street ‘partygate’ scandal.

This vacuum, and Chancellor’s separate decision to veto a £15bn plan to help pupils catch-up on lost learning in the wake of the Covid pandemic, explains the sceptical tone of today’s report by the Treasury Committee.

It bemoans the absence of clear policy objectives, cautions against ‘rebadging’ existing policy programmes, notes the 40 per cent cut to post-Brexit spending in ‘left behind’ areas and warns that local councils are preoccupied by the social care funding ‘black hole’.

And while the cross-party committee is sympathetic to Mr Sunak over the pandemic’s impact on public finances, the Richmond MP needs to remember that he’ll only be in a position to cut taxes if he can generate sufficient growth. As such, it is bemusing that both levelling up and education reform remain stuck in the political slow lane when the potential economic dividend could be so great.

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