There has been a disgraceful lack of progress on levelling up - Yorkshire Post Letters

In 2019, 'levelling up' was the government’s flagship election promise. Yet almost five years later, not even 20 per cent of levelling up projects to improve towns across England have been completed. This is disgraceful.

Instead, the deprivation divide is widening. The regional economic forecast published this month by accountants Ernst Young shows that northern regions such as Yorkshire and the Humber have suffered sharper falls in economic activity and will have to wait in line behind London and the South-East in any future economic recovery.

The UK is the only major OECD country where the employment rate has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic level. This economic downturn, exacerbated by Brexit, has disproportionately hit regions such as our own. As a result, the Gini coefficient of income inequality for the UK is the highest in Western Europe.

The London-centric neglect of the North and the lack of a national recovery plan has resulted in loss of voters' trust in government and the violence and unrest about which Rishi Sunak claims to be concerned. This is despite the fact he was instrumental in allowing such a hostile environment to develop.

The report 'State of the North 2024' from the Institute for Public Policy Research argues for the rebuilding of voters' trust in four ways.

First is the need for stronger local and regional democracy. Second is equalising the tax rate on incomes from shareholding with that of working people’s wages. Third is the restoration of local authority funding – slashed in half since 2010.

The final recommendation is to join up climate investment plans and economic development funding within an overarching green growth strategy. This would provide the necessary stability for private investment through long-term regional commitments.

But instead of a joined-up plan for the country, Westminster warring factions have seized the agenda.

The recent budget has shown a doubling-down on cuts and austerity that will most hit the disadvantaged in favour of more tax giveaways for the wealthy.

Roll on the General Election – but the incoming government is going to have a job on its hands.