Lord Kerslake: Tackling inequalities can heal Brexit tensions

Five years on, the former Head of the Civil Service is now focusing on the wider political tensions across the country and how to heal the divisions that have been created and exacerbated by Britain’s tumultuous exit from the EU.

He believes that much of the current anger aimed at the political class is routed in more deep-seated inequalities that have divided the UK’s communities over decades.

In response he has launched a groundbreaking initiative – the UK2070 Commission – which will consider how Britain became socially and economically riven, and set out how to rebuild it for the long-term.

“We have gone consciously long game,” he tells The Yorkshire Post.“ Hence the title UK2070.”

“So it goes back 50 years and it goes forward 50 years.

“Of course we are not suggesting that we will only make recommendations that will only have an impact in 50 years time because that would feel like a long way away.

“But if you want to look at these issues and do justice to them you have to look longer- term than most people do.”

The work will bring together academics, politicians and other experts and will focus on how the UK can roll out pockets of economic success across the country.

For Lord Kerslake, the scheme will bring together his wealth of experience in local government – he was Sheffield City Council’s chief executive in the late nineties – together with his vast knowledge of implementing national policy.

His motivation comes from observing the economic and social trends that have led to what is referred to as spatial inequality – where geographic location determines access to vital services and resources and therefore wider life chances and opportunities.

“By almost any measure the UK is one of the most spatially unequal countries in the developed world,” he says.

“We are moving in the wrong direction. Those inequalities are growing and by inequalities I mean between London and the South East and the rest of the country. It is a North-South issue but it is more than a North-South issue. Unless we do something about this, those inequalities will carry on growing.

“This is bad news for everybody. It’s bad news for the North because it entrenches inequalities and there are some very deprived parts of the North.

“It’s bad news for the country because we are missing out on the economic potential of the whole of the country - we are missing out on what it has to offer.”

Although the UK2070 Commission will look long-term, it will attempt to shape political discourse in the short-term, with the first report set to be released in the next few weeks.

Alongside the analysis it will make recommendations for how to seize the fairer and more prosperous vision of the UK it plans to set out.

Central to that will be a call for a sweeping programme of devolution that takes previous efforts to a new level.

“We need more devolution in this country,” Lord Kerslake says.

“It is no accident that we are one of the most unequal and most centralised countries.

“Let’s see if we can take the good work that has been done through the Northern Powerhouse and the Midlands Engine and so on and perhaps develop something like four or five larger regions to drive economic development.

“We are an over-centralised country and that works against us. You get an overloaded centre and a disempowered periphery in this country.”

Reflecting on how the devolution process should develop in Yorkshire, Lord Kerslake suggests that Ministers must remain open to models other than just city-focused deals, and should reconsider the region-wide One Yorkshire deal that was ruled out by the Communities Secretary earlier this year.

Lord Kerslake says he would first like to see the Sheffield City Region deal completed, followed by “a conversation about the potential for One Yorkshire”.

“That would be, for me, the way forward from where we are now,” he adds.

Following the initial UK2070 report, there will be a symposium in Leeds on June 13, a further report in early September and then a final report early next year.

Asked why he chose Leeds for the UK2070 Commission’s first big event, Lord Kerslake replies: “We clearly wanted to hold the event outside of London because it is about regional re-balancing.

“We are going to have a London event, but we wanted the first big event to be outside of London.

“I think Leeds is an example of a city that has achieved a great deal in economic growth and development but has the potential to do more, to be an even more powerful contributor to Yorkshire really as a region.

“And so in many ways it encapsulates the sort of story that we are trying to describe really of huge imbalances, a widening gap, some very strong and positive efforts that have been made through local leadership but the potential to go so much further if government changed its direction of policy.

“So, all of those reasons and we are delighted to be there.”