Much of the speculation about the UK’s Levelling Up White Paper has focused on organisational structures. This is important as without the right institutional arrangements and capacity in place, attempts to change the economic fortunes of the UK will continue to fall short. There is a strong case for more investment decision-making powers to be devolved to the areas most in need of Levelling Up, but unless resources are invested with strategic focus, we will not see the changes that are needed.
I don’t think anyone expects the government to come up with the sort of resources needed, or despite reassurances replace what we are about to lose as the EU Structural Funds dry up. Resources will need to be rationed, and I don’t think we have concentrated enough of the resource we have had to date on a small enough number of opportunities/challenges and for long enough. We have spread the jam thin, focused too narrowly on capital spending, and not had the consistent long-term focus that is really needed to tackle the issues at the heart of the Levelling Up agenda.
We won’t improve the prospects of the people and places that are most left behind without an injection of strategic discipline in our investment planning. Sporadic capital investment in town centres, transport and culture/ heritage are not a solution. Yes, there is always a case for opportunism, but this often simply diverts effort and attention away from tackling the deep-seated challenge of poor skills, low wages, out of date infrastructure, low innovation and unequal life expectancy, which are the real drivers that shape the lived experience of people.
For me, we need to answer two big questions:
- What is the balance between investing in People and/or Places? We cannot get there just through spending capital resources on places; we need a balanced and rounded approach that allows people to take advantage of better (work, leisure and learning) facilities in the places where they live.
- Where do we channel investment? We need to get away from spurious prioritisation and think harder (nationally and locally) about where the balance lies between investing in more excellence (in the hope that it attracts more investment, visitors, innovation) and directly addressing the needs and those who are furthest away (distance and ability-wise) from opportunity?
These two questions generate a framework which could guide strategic investment in economic development and Levelling Up. Its deliberately simple and I’ve provided broad examples of the sort of investments that might be supported in each focus area.
I know the temptation is to say we need to invest in all six of the focus areas, but the reality is that we will not have enough investment to address them all in the concerted way that is needed.
Exemplars are all well and good, and a little money sprinkled here and there might show willingness, but we really need to choose and commit to long-term investment in solutions if we are to secure the fundamental change that is needed.
Thereafter, lots of additional choices will need to be made between competing locations and sectors, but these decisions will be easier once a clear choice about strategic investment focus has been made.
The global drivers of change shaping the wider world also need to be considered: our ageing population, rampant technological change, and the urgent need to de-carbonise must inflect how we Level-Up. But, we should be wary about being overly co-opted into these agendas. Even without a Levelling Up challenge, the UK would need to respond these global drivers. We should ensure they are additional and complementary, but not allow them to be used as cover, when the real driver are the ageing, digital or net-zero challenges we also face.
Yes, I’ve simplified things, but I think this is needed. It feels like we have sometimes gone too far into the weeds of chasing money and been distracted by secondary questions of re-organising the institutional landscape. We need to invest with strategic discipline if we are to begin to change the lives of the people and places that should benefit most from Levelling Up.
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