Calls for devolution deals to be tailored to help solve decades-long inequalities ingrained in society

Ministers are preparing to unveil a blueprint for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s much-trumpeted levelling up agenda later this month to help tackle the deeply ingrained regional inequalities that persist across the country.

The Levelling Up White Paper is due to present a detailed vision for how the Conservative Party’s manifesto pledge ahead of the 2019 General Election to help spread prosperity to beleaguered parts of the nation will become a reality.

The deputy chairman of the Social Mobility Commission, Alun Francis, has now urged the Government to ensure that deals to devolve powers away from Westminster, which are seen as a key element of the levelling up agenda, are not introduced in a “one-size fits all” approach.

In his first interview since taking on the role at the commission in November, Mr Francis said: “We would hope the White Paper is about bringing levelling up and social mobility a lot closer together.

“Social mobility is not going to mean much if it is about small groups of people who can make gigantic leaps in their lives, it has got to mean something to the majority of the population.

“We are hoping that there will be a real dialogue with the Government to ensure that this can be achieved.”

The concept of social mobility has long been held as a means of allowing greater opportunities for people coming from more deprived backgrounds.

Research by the Social Mobility Commission has revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on accentuating inequalities across society.

In its State of the Nation report last year, the commission warned that disadvantaged young people and children living in poverty have been hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis and could face consequences that affect them for years.

About 4.3m children - almost one third of youngsters in the UK - were living in poverty as of March 2020, an increase of about 700,000, or 3.7 percentage points, from March 2012.

The research also found that people are 60 per cent more likely to get a professional job if they come from a privileged background rather than working class background.

In 2019 before the pandemic struck, people from working class backgrounds in professional jobs earned about £6,000 less than their more privileged counterparts in professional careers.

Multi-billion pound devolution deals are already in place for South and West Yorkshire, but concerns have been raised over the true extent of the powers which the Government is granting to the regions.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month that key decisions over the spending of £1.4bn for a Yorkshire “transport revolution” are due to be made in Whitehall rather than by local mayors leading to accusations that the Government is undermining its own levelling-up agenda.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s October Budget and Spending Review granted £830m to West Yorkshire and £570m to South Yorkshire under the £5.7bn City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement programme aimed at areas of the country with metro mayors.

But a Freedom of Information request by The Yorkshire Post revealed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had written to West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin setting out how many of the proposed schemes will require his department’s approval before they can go ahead.

The Rotherham-born former Conservative Education Secretary Justine Greening founded the Purpose Coalition in December 2020 to bring together Britain’s business leaders to break down social barriers in communities across the country.

Ms Greening said: “Devolution has to have a purpose, and that purpose has to be levelling up. Local leaders are best designed to level up in their communities, but it does have to be horses for courses to tailor the devolved powers to the specific areas.

“Schools, for instance, need to get better at helping the talent that is not currently being developed as it should be, and young people often find it hard to get the opportunities they deserve.

“It is not just about the Government and local government, though, as it is about local businesses playing their part as well.

“Everyone has a role to play in levelling up and providing a comprehensive plan on the way forward.”

Mr Francis, who has been the chief executive of Oldham College since 2010, admitted that the impact of Covid-19 has potentially delayed the speed at which the Government’s levelling up agenda can be achieved.

He said: “The most frustrating thing is that people who have lived and worked in some of the so-called levelling up places have waited for a long time for it to become policy and it has coincided with a global pandemic.

“Some of the things that may have been possible two years ago before the pandemic may have to wait. But it is about how we can balance the expectation, as the last thing we want is for this to slip off the policy agenda.

“We need it to stay at the centre of policy for the next generation, and not just the next electoral cycle.

“It really does need to stay in everybody’s minds as the key issue that the country needs to solve.”

The Government has maintained that the Levelling Up White Paper will tackle regional inequalities to enhance opportunities for social mobility across the country.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said: “The Levelling Up White Paper will set out the Government’s plan for levelling up across the UK by spreading opportunity, empowering local leaders and improving public services.

“This work has already begun - in 2020, we finalised a devolution deal with South Yorkshire, unlocking £900m of additional investment funding, and agreed a devolution deal with West Yorkshire which will provide £1.1bn, as well as devolving significant new decision-making powers on transport, housing, planning, education and skills.”