Westminster needs to set South Yorkshire free so that we can ‘Level Up’ the region - Oliver Coppard

In 2019, a swathe of seats turned blue, and found themselves in the political glare. The Conservatives had to find a way to meet the promises made to towns they had forgotten and undermined for years. They found a slogan, ‘Levelling Up’, and built a policy around it.

For anyone unaware of how ‘Levelling Up’ works, Government set out ‘12 Missions’ for the whole country. Regions are made to bid for pots of money designed and held by Westminster. And I would argue that’s the problem; it’s all on Westminster’s terms.

‘Levelling up’, with apparently good intentions, turned us all into recipients. We were no longer expected to contribute to growth, just to benefit from it. Allowed to do only what Westminster says we can. Westminster knows best.

But Westminster does not know us. We are not the Red Wall. We are not The North. What Rochdale is crying out for will not work in Rotherham. It’s hard to diagnose what ails us when what ails us is so different. The causes of inequality are many. Each struggling region struggles in its own way. The inequality plaguing Doncaster is not borne of the same inequality biting at the heart of Darlington. Diagnosing each dysfunction from hundreds of miles away is impossible. One medicine does not cure all ills.

One emblem of the failings of centralised control is our public transport. Last year, South Yorkshire lost 15 per cent of its bus routes. Outside London most bus networks are struggling. And that’s because everyone is stuck with the same Westminster-imposed broken system.

Since buses were taken out of local control in the 1980s, bus companies are in charge. They decide where and when to run the buses, and when routes stop making them enough money they cut them. All I can do right now is step in and pay operators to run the routes that have been dropped.

One of the government’s ‘12 Levelling Up Missions’ was for everywhere to have London-style public transport. But we’re not asking for London-style transport, we don’t want tubes and cable cars; all we want is a network that works for South Yorkshire.

Imagine if we could run our own buses. We could design the system so it works for us, making sure buses ran when people needed them. Instead, we’re stuck patching up a declining service, all the while going through the laborious, expensive franchising assessment process (again, created by Whitehall).

Inequality is not just a North-South issue. If you are born just five miles apart in Sheffield, your life chances are vastly different. If you live at one end of the 83a bus route you’re likely to die 13 years earlier than if you live at the other. You are likely to get chronically ill 20 years earlier if you’re born in the poorest parts of South Yorkshire than the richest. It’s a shameful indictment of life in England in the 21st century. Too many people become too ill to work too young. Chronic disease holds back our economy, but more importantly it ruins lives. I said when I was elected that I would make South Yorkshire the healthiest region in the UK. A bold ambition for a region with some of the worst health outcomes. I can’t do it alone, but if I didn’t try, I would be failing my community.

In 2016, South Yorkshire voted to ‘Take Back Control’ (I remember clearer than most, having run the ‘Remain’ campaign in Yorkshire). To me, the Brexit vote was a rallying call for greater agency. It’s not hard to see why it was the so-called ‘left-behind areas’ that voted for change. Towns already dizzy from industrial decline, sucker-punched by austerity. Six years on, our communities would be hard-pressed to say what control they’ve gained.

That is the real tragedy, because everywhere I look in South Yorkshire I see greatness. We have a wealth of talent: Look at the music we’ve made, the stories we’ve told, the art we’ve created. There is dynamism and innovation here – and don’t take my word for it, take Mclaren’s or Boeing’s. Look at what Warp films are doing. Look at the music labels based here. Look at our theatres. Look at our choirs. Look at the graduates who never leave. South Yorkshire is special.

So what does South Yorkshire need in 2023? We need Westminster to set us free. I have big plans for my home. I will do everything I can to help us become the healthiest and greenest region in the UK; to fix our public transport; and to grow our economy. We’ve got the ingredients to build something brilliant here, we’re just being boxed in at every turn.

And that’s why I don’t like the phrase ‘Levelling Up’. Levelling is something which smooths the edges, makes us homogenous and bland. We’re better than that. We need renewal, we need restoration, and we need the tools to do it. Give us the powers, give us agency and we will make South Yorkshire the place it can be.

Oliver Coppard is the Mayor of South Yorkshire.