As prime minister, Boris Johnson’s big plan was to “level up” investment throughout the UK. Stalled in part by the pandemic and Rishi Sunak promising the Tories of Tunbridge Wells to stop “shove[ing] all the funding into deprived urban areas”, this great vision withered into piecemeal scraps from Whitehall raffled to the most politically advantageous provinces.
The failure of Levelling Up has been a profound political betrayal. Voters had counted on Johnson to change their lives and locales for the better. They got worse. But, quietly, the Labour government is spending significantly more than Johnson did in his first year on its own version of the policy, reveals research shared exclusively with the New Statesman.
In its first year in office, Keir Starmer’s government has invested £2bn more than Johnson did in his first year – with £4.5bn allocated to regional investment programmes in Labour’s first year compared with £2.5bn spent in the equivalent period under Johnson – according to new analysis by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods.
Investment in the North East will be seven times higher than under Johnson, and five times higher in the North West and Yorkshire and Humber by the end of the parliament, based on current trends identified in this analysis of 46 government programmes and funds.
In fact, Starmer’s government has already committed funding the equivalent of 70 per cent of the entirety of Johnson’s “Levelling Up” allocation in just 14 months in office. It is on track to invest £36bn in such schemes: three times the levels under Boris Johnson. It is also weighting this funding more towards the north, with 51 per cent of the money going to northern regions compared with 41 per cent under Johnson.
It is clear from these figures that Labour is willing to spend significantly more than its predecessors on improving these areas. But this doesn’t guarantee success.
Firstly, even if people end up with nicer neighbourhoods as a result of this funding, public awareness of such schemes is very low – far below any other policy announcements made in Labour’s first year in office, according to polling by the community business network Power to Change. Voters may thank their council, or their mayor, or no one in particular, rather than Starmer’s government.
But more importantly, the funding analysed is drawn from 46 different pots – it doesn’t cohere into one plan, with a vision and a story to tell, to tackle Britain’s areas of greatest disadvantage. “The government has made a good start,” said Hilary Armstrong, a Labour peer who chairs the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods and as an MP worked on Sure Start and the New Deal for Communities. “We need to keep up the pace of investment and ensure that we develop a robust strategy for ensuring that record investment leads to record results.”
[Further reading: Great Britain’s failed state]
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