Levelling Up 'fighting to remain relevant' one year on

Levelling Up is “fighting to remain relevant” ahead of the Chancellor’s spring statement, experts and opposition MPs have warned, as the project reaches its one year anniversary.

Yesterday marked a year since the publication of the Government’s white paper on the central project of Boris Johnson’s premiership, with Rishi Sunak reaching his 100th day as Prime Minister.

Michael Gove, who returned as the minister in charge of seeing it through late last year, said in February 2022 that it would end the “cycle of decline” that deprived areas such as those in Yorkshire have seen for years.

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Yesterday he was accused of “dodging scrutiny” as Labour called on the Government to publish its promised progress report on Levelling Up.

Lisa Nandy, the party’s shadow levelling up secretary, said it was unacceptable that the promised update on the white paper’s 12 “missions” had not materialised after Mr Gove said it was needed to provide “rigorous external scrutiny, including by parliament".Lisa Nandy, the party’s shadow levelling up secretary, said it was unacceptable that the promised update on the white paper’s 12 “missions” had not materialised after Mr Gove said it was needed to provide “rigorous external scrutiny, including by parliament".
Lisa Nandy, the party’s shadow levelling up secretary, said it was unacceptable that the promised update on the white paper’s 12 “missions” had not materialised after Mr Gove said it was needed to provide “rigorous external scrutiny, including by parliament".

Lisa Nandy, the party’s shadow levelling up secretary, said it was unacceptable that the promised update on the white paper’s 12 “missions” had not materialised after Mr Gove said it was needed to provide “rigorous external scrutiny, including by parliament".

Despite the past 12 months seeing over 50 per cent of England becoming covered by “enhanced powers” devolved from Westminster, the country’s “economic imbalance has not changed in 365 days”, experts have warned.

Adam Hawksbee, Deputy Director of the Onward think tank, said that Rishi Sunak should “re-engage” with the core message of last year’s white paper to “rewire the British state”.

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“A year on from the Levelling Up White Paper, both the agenda and the vision are fighting to remain relevant,” he said, adding: “The political and practical cost of giving up on Levelling Up is too great.”

“What should alarm the Government is that the economic turbulence of the past year has hardened regional divides, with the cost of living crisis biting particularly hard in the Midlands and the North,” he said .

“When the Chancellor comes to the dispatch box on 15 March for his Budget, the place-based lens set out in the White Paper could not be more crucial - issues like economic inactivity manifest very differently between towns, cities, and regions.

“The Treasury produces impact assessments for each part of the country when they conduct a fiscal event. A bold Government dedicated to levelling up would publish them.”

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Last year the Yorkshire Post revealed that both Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove wanted to give mayors powers over taxation, as part of a radical shift to “fiscal devolution” which could eventually lead to more money retained in communities.

It was anticipated that these powers could be given to the West Midlands and Greater Manchester as part of their “trailblazer” deals.

Andy Burnham told MPs last year that he hoped the deal for his region would be finalised by the end of last month, but has not yet appeared.

However, the idea of fiscal devolution was absent from Mr Gove’s speech at the Convention of the North in Manchester, with it remaining unclear whether the move will make it into the Chancellor’s budget in six weeks’ time.

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Last night the Chancellor was urged to scrap the global minimum corporate tax rate as it would “undermine the Government’s Levelling Up agenda”.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, backing the calls from the Adam Smith Institute, said that “agreeing high rates among a cabal of developed nations will keep the world poorer”.

The think tank argued that the proposals could undermine the Government’s programme of investment zones, which the Yorkshire Post revealed last year had replaced the white paper’s 20 “regeneration zones”.

It comes after officials revealed that Mr Gove’s department could also scrap its levelling up directors, the £120,000-a-year job meant to be the “first port of call for new and innovativelocal policy proposals”.