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Boris Johnson will unveil plans on Wednesday for a significant decentralization of power from Whitehall over the next decade to underpin the rem strategy to “level up” the UK.
A long-awaited 400-page white paper will outline the prime minister’s efforts to help “left-behind” areas of the country that voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum and backed the Conservatives at the 2019 election.
Johnson is under pressure to turn his levelling-up slogan into clearly defined policies for narrowing regional inequalities. The white paper is likely to be criticized for not including new government funding.
The prime minister pledged “the largest devolution of power from Whitehall to local leaders across England in modern times” by 2030, following the creation of mayoralties in Greater Manchester and Teesside in northern England.
The white paper invites nine English counties to apply for county devolution deals, including Cornwall and Durham. Some existing mayors will be offered further powers akin to those in London.
The document also sets a new target for state research and development spending to increase by at least 40 per cent by 2030 in an effort to boost productivity.
Although the government has previously announced money to support its levelling-up agenda – such as the towns’ fund – the white paper is reliant on allocations in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review of last year.
A brownfield development site in Wolverhampton: the white paper will announce three ‘innovation accelerators’ to boost local business in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Glasgow City region © Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
Efforts to help left-behind communities, which have missed out on economic prosperity, have been hampered by a decade of cuts to local government.
The Institute for Government think-tank said that central government grants to councils were reduced by 37 per cent in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20.
Johnson will pledge to ensure everyone across the UK has access to the same opportunities, while warning that changes “cannot be dug out overnight”.
Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, said that “for decades, too many communities have been overlooked and undervalued”, adding that the UK was akin to “a jet firing on only one engine”.
Gove told the BBC that the proposed policy changes were “absolutely critical” for the country, which was “over-centralized” and reliant on “elites in London”.
Lisa Nandy, shadow levelling-up secretary, said: “Ministers have had two-and-a-half years to get this right and all we’ve been given is more slogans and strategies, with few new ideas.”
She added: “Boris Johnson’s answer to our communities calling for change is to shuffle the deckchairs – new government structures, recycled pots of money and a small refund on the money this government have taken from us.”
The document will also announce three “innovation accelerators” to boost local businesses in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and the Glasgow City region.
Twelve policy objectives will be put into legislation and overseen by a new levelling-up advisory council, to include Sir Paul Collier, an economics professor at Oxford university, among other members.
Those goals include: narrowing the gap in healthy life expectancy; reducing homicide and serious violence; improving people’s satisfaction with town centers and local culture; raising the level of skills training; delivering fast 5G network coverage for most of the population; and improving local transport and connectivity.
The government will publish another white paper later this year on tackling health inequalities. Gove announced that Homes England, an arm’s length government agency, will be repurposed to help regenerate town centers.
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