Why IEA is offering £50,000 for your idea to supercharge ‘left-behind’ Britain - Emma Revell

“We’re all in it together”. That has been the refrain throughout this pandemic, but to most people it doesn’t ring true. While some have worked from home in comfortable home offices, nurturing sourdough starters and baking banana bread, others have huddled over cramped kitchen tables with housemates in back-breaking chairs.
The Angel of the North came to symbolise the Power Up The North campaign.The Angel of the North came to symbolise the Power Up The North campaign.
The Angel of the North came to symbolise the Power Up The North campaign.

To some, months of backache is a luxury they could ill-afford, having instead been forced into months of furlough. Their jobs are precarious, their futures uncertain.

These differences are plain to see across the country, but by early summer the cracks began to appear along a very familiar geographical route.

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The North-South divide isn’t the perfect way to describe the divisions in this country. There are pockets of London that are as deprived as parts of Greater Manchester are prosperous, and many Londoners have spent the last nine months trapped in overcrowded housing. But the term is a recognised short-hand for the regional inequalities that prevail across the UK.

Emma Revell is the Head of Public Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs.Emma Revell is the Head of Public Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Emma Revell is the Head of Public Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

From levels of educational attainment to life expectancy, these iniquities can be seen on a range of metrics. And the divide keeps widening: every year thousands of young people leave their homes in towns across the country and move to the nation’s thriving metropolitan hubs – for university, for work, for opportunity. Many never return.

This has been the case for decades, but discontent spilled over in late 2019, with the Conservatives sweeping away the so-called “Red Wall” as voters took to heart Boris Johnson’s pledge to level up the country. New civic infrastructure, more funding for schools and technical education, the reinvigoration of our high streets and town centres, were all promised, and all put at risk by the virus that tore across the globe.

Worse, look at the geographical concentration of some of the strictest restrictions. Metro Mayors became household names as they denounced the tier system and demanded more funding to support businesses affected by these measures.

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Once again, large swathes of the North and Midlands are now facing tougher measures – and a colour-coded map of tier restrictions tallies quite closely with a map of the richest and poorest parts of the UK, meaning those with the least are going to be hardest hit.

That’s why the Institute of Economic Affairs has launched the 2021 Richard Koch Breakthrough Prize. Every year the essay competition, kindly sponsored by businessman and entrepreneur Richard Koch, identifies the most compelling solutions to the biggest challenges of the day.

The topic of the question is formulated in conjunction with a prominent British MP, who identifies a policy area which they passionately believe is in need of new ideas. In 2020, in partnership with Dehenna Davison MP, we are looking for free market, free enterprise policies to supercharge growth, employment, and living standards in ‘left behind’ Britain.

Money alone won’t fill the deep ravines that separate Kingston upon Hull from Kensington, Blackpool from Buckinghamshire. The Government used the recent Spending Review to unveil a new £4bn Levelling Up fund but simply throwing money at the problem won’t revive towns that have suffered decades of decline, where heavy industry died and where nothing rose from its ashes.

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Instead of relying on top-down mandates from Whitehall departments, we’re giving everyone the opportunity to put forward their ideas and be in with a chance of supercharging their own fortunes with a top prize of £50,000. Whether you’re a business owner, an academic, a student, or just someone with an idea, we want to hear your solutions.

As someone who came from an industrial town but left to live in London, I know first-hand how important this challenge is. Scunthorpe is a wonderful town and I love going back to visit but changing trains at Doncaster, stepping off a brand new LNER train speeding off to Edinburgh and climbing aboard a much older, much slower Northern Rail stopping service, feels like a perfect illustration of the gaps between the UK’s prosperous city hubs and the towns and villages that surround them.

The UK has been growing more unequal for decades. Covid-19 has wreaked destruction and devastation to our health and wealth – but perhaps it could kickstart a levelling-up revolution. Investment alone cannot realise the rhetoric we’ve heard. We need ideas. If you have them – we want to know.

Emma Revell is the Head of Public Affairs at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Visit the organisation’s website for more information.

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