Economic organisations say the Levelling Up White Paper ‘falls far short’

The Levelling Up White Paper needs more detail on how the missions will be achieved in practise, says economic leaders.

The Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) found that the White Paper falls short of six tests set out by the think tank ahead of its release, including purpose, money, jobs, ownership, devolution and local government.

CLES argues it is not clear how the new national ambitions will translate into local delivery and there is nothing in the indicators about addressing wealth inequality or poverty.

Sarah Longlands, Chief Executive of CLES, said: ‘Even with 332 pages to fill out the detail, and after two years of hype, the Levelling Up White Paper lacks the focus and finance to get to the root of the problem: an economic system which fails to give people a stake in their local place through, for example, decent work, housing and transport. This inequality, made worse by the pandemic, is what is driving down living standards and life expectancy rather than helping people to live good lives. The Levelling Up White Paper doesn’t offer a coherent roadmap for economic change but a scattering of special projects which together will do little to alleviate the challenges faced by those who have not only been left behind but kept behind for decades.’

Dr Tom Lloyd Goodwin, Associate Director of CLES, added: ‘Regardless of the planned initiatives in today’s announcement, the truth is that after ten years of local cuts, capacity to deliver the best outcomes for communities is at an all-time low. You cannot level up from Westminster, or even from a mayoral combined authority. The hard graft of delivering change can only be achieved in council offices, high streets, community meetings and small businesses. But there were few crumbs of comfort for them in today’s announcement.’

The Institute of Economic Development (IED) also argued that the White Paper does not include enough information to understand how change will be achieved in practise.

IED Executive Director Nigel Wilcock said: ‘The publication of the Levelling Up White Paper may have created headlines but arguably there is not enough in there to understand how systemic change will be achieved in practice. However, the ambition of setting The 12 Missions to Level Up the UK, cutting across the work of seven other government departments is far-reaching – and could be seen as an agenda to impact on the lives of those missed by the economic policies of the past. Let’s hope this is a genuine attempt to achieve just that, and there is little to disagree with in terms of such a goal.

 ‘There is a need for significantly more detail on how the Missions will be achieved and whether this is a genuine cross-government initiative or a political land grab by DLUHC. More devolution and a consistent approach to economic delivery structures is welcome, but we hope that the detail is more policy than politics and more process than yet more prosecco. At this stage we also stress the importance of economic development becoming a statutory function within local government which can then make sure that the delivery of levelling up initiatives takes place against the backdrop of greater certainty with a focus on the long-term.

 ‘We welcome the news that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) will continue to provide a key plank in the economic development landscape. The IED had called for continuity in the mechanisms that were in place to deliver the policy agenda. The news that LEPs are here to stay ensures that the difficult groundwork always involved in creating trusted local partnerships will not be wasted – and most importantly ensures that the government is able to hit the ground running in terms of delivering the new priorities established by the Levelling Up White Paper.’

Photo by Rui Chamberlain