London’s elite will never level up North – Yorkshire Post Letters

REGRETTABLY, I fear that CBI regional director Beckie Hart’s optimism regarding levelling up (The Yorkshire Post, February 1) is wholly misplaced.

Whilst its fairness as a concept is beyond criticism, sadly, the metropolitan elite which dominate our nation will never allow it to get beyond a useful slogan for obtaining votes.

Levelling up implies that areas outside the South East will be granted greater advantages than elsewhere. Simply equating funding for all areas will not bring levelling about.

History is littered with examples of this, including HS2 which was designed to assist levelling up. Instead of starting in the North, the line was built from London and by the time it had notionally reached Birmingham it became too expensive to complete.

Even funding a line between Bradford’s two railway stations so that an important south-east/north-west link would be formed was never considered. No problem with completing Crossrail however. It will always remain a truism that in order to have the greatest advantages in life it is hugely advantageous to make your way in the South East.

If the Government were to be honest and truly mean equality of living standards and opportunity, then it would distribute its national institutions and offices of government around the nation and give stimuli to private industry to diversify their activities. At election time this becomes a live issue – remember the proposals for Government offices to be based in York? Quickly forgotten once the election was over.

The painful truth is that we will be waiting a long, long time for the required changes to be truly implemented.

From: Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton.

IN Chris Burn’s report on an extension to Opportunity Areas (The Yorkshire Post, February 2), we’re advised of strong signs of initial progress in these 12 locally-led areas. Is it impolite to ask just what these signs are, and how they contrast within and beyond the schools involved?

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