Rishi Sunak must commit to delivering levelling up or risk a premiership as short as Truss - Zoë Billingham

It’s clear that the 2019 election delivered the Conservatives a victory based on a promise to level up the country.

Sunak would not be where he is today without the northern voters whose concerns chimed with promises made to reduce regional inequality.

His mandate remains that of the 2019 manifesto which pledged to unlock opportunity in every part of the country, work towards “full devolution across England” and invest in key projects like Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Three years on and scant progress has been made on levelling up. Power and resources have become even more centralised in certain parts. Investment to level up has been small scale, fragmented and delivered in a way which means the most ‘shovel ready’ projects have been prioritised over those which are needed most.

Meanwhile, our creaking public services mean many of our basic needs in health, or transport, aren’t being met. The cost-of-living crisis compounds our existing inequalities and reveals the fragility of our resilience.

As Chancellor for two of the past three years, Rishi Sunak has had the opportunity to put the clout of the Treasury, the UK’s economic and finance ministry, behind the levelling up agenda but chose not to.

Instead, resources allocated to places have been insufficient to shift the dial on regional inequality and decisions have become more centralised as Westminster took a firmer hold over decisions on funding.

The amount of tax that goes to Whitehall, instead of being kept locally, has increased to an eye watering 96p in every £1, compared to 65p in Germany.

Sunak gloated just this year that he was reducing already meagre funding to “deprived urban areas”, against all levelling up logic.

It's not clear that Rishi Sunak will change his tune and reboot levelling up as prime minister, even though he would be well advised to.

We know that Sunak is a fiscal hawk, and buoyed on by his wing man Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, is expected to return the country to austerity and further cut back essential public services. This emerging austerity narrative is a false choice, just like it was back in 2010. There are far better ways to soundly invest for our collective future and fiscal room can be made for government to invest in our regions.

Sunak, for example, could decide to make those who earn money from assets and wealth pay as much tax as those who earn from income alone.

Additionally, rolling back the ill-advised tax cuts of Truss and Kwarteng from just last month would also help provide the financial headroom for more investment by the government, in the very places that would benefit most from levelling up.

Besides a fragmented and small-scale investment offer to level up which continues today, Sunak was previously also the architect behind the government’s freeports policy. Freeports, which are low tax low regulation zones in places across the country, just like today’s investment zones, offer little more than an expensive way to move economic activity from one region to its neighbour. A continuation of low tax, low investment and austerity will fail to level up the country. There are far better reason to invest in the UK, after all.

Instead, investors and businesses alike want a healthy, skilled and educated workforce. Buoyant, well-resourced public services would help to make that happen.

To crowd in that sought after private investment in our regions, we also need a stable government with an eye to the future, which is willing to invest in the places less likely to give immediate returns and empower them to make their own decisions.

Our own work tells us that investing in a net zero transition for the North could create 77,000 jobs by 2050, as well as making our homes warmer and more energy efficient. Delivering Northern Powerhouse Rail would unlock billions in economic growth. These are the foundations that will bring good jobs and investment across the country, not a race to the bottom on taxation.

Promises made to the country to level up have so far gone unmet – and northerners know it. Sunak must see that levelling up is the mandate on which he walks through the door of 10 Downing Street. His party must see it. The country already knows it. Any leader that doesn’t realise that levelling up is still a central concern of the public, as well as foundational to fair economic growth, risks a premiership as short as a once known predecessor, Liz Truss.

Zoë Billingham is the director of IPPR North.