IED shares pre-Levelling Up White Paper perspectives

Ahead of the publication of the long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper, the Institute of Economic Development (IED) is sharing new insights from economic development professionals on what is required from the UK government’s flagship policy.

IED Executive Director Nigel Wilcock said the main purpose of the paper was to ‘collate and share a huge body of expertise often based on the lessons learned from the past – both in the UK and more widely’.

The paper goes on to highlight a number of recurring themes in the insights from industry experts, including needing to put communities at the centre of all levelling up strategy, concluding that trickle-down economics have failed, and promoting more cross-initiative working.

Nigel Wilcock said: ‘Economic development has long been considered as a function that needs to address areas of market failure – it is this mantra that has shaped the profession. However, how might the profession be shaped for the decade ahead if we look down the telescope from the other end?

‘Perhaps there are elements of economic development that would be shaped more effectively if they were considered outside of the market? Should we be completing gymnastics on a pin head to demonstrate the value for money of interventions to improve public realm; better align education and training with the economy; or address the most intractable problems in communities? Alternatively, in a world where Levelling Up is the new objective, should the better local statutory provision of economic development be a given?’

Other recurring themes according to the IED included:

• Levelling Up and economic development is about people and communities, yet they are frequently left out of the narrative. Community confidence, aspiration, skills and opportunity need to be at the centre of everything that is considered.
• Trickle-down economics has not worked. Economic growth in the UK over the recent past has generally delivered benefits for a few whilst barely touching many. Against a backdrop of the Levelling Up agenda, much of the work undertaken can therefore be considered to have failed.
• The failure of the various initiatives is partly because the approach was never designed to address inequalities – but also partly because the challenges relating to Levelling Up involve multiple issues covered by several different government departments and organisations. There is a need for far more cross-initiative working.
• Attempting to work cross-departmentally within government is nirvana – often desired and seldom achieved. Considering interlocking issues at a local level is, however, more achievable and suggests that devolution should be deepened and accelerated.
• The current approach to devolution is flawed – with local actors now responsible for administering the same Westminster funds with the same rules as before it is unsurprising that the outcomes achieved remain the same.
• Devolution can better align local economic development with local needs and local governance. Such a model can address policy silos and should be aligned with the requirement to make economic development a statutory function.
• Ensuring that economic development is a statutory function can then make certain that the delivery of economic development initiatives takes place against the backdrop of greater certainty with a focus on the long term.
• There is no need for disheartenment from some of the initiatives failing – failure is a mechanism for refinement, but this is not recognised sufficiently within public sector approaches.

In related news, two years on from the UK’s government’s promise to level up, a new IPPR report examines the delivery of this policy for the North and offers a roadmap to ensure levelling up succeeds.

Photo by Tom Podmore