Conservative MPs launch ‘levelling up’ taskforce

A group of 40 Tory MPs has launched a taskforce to ‘champion ideas to boost Britain’s lagging areas’.

The ‘Levelling Up’ Taskforce will produce a regular newsletter charting progress on levelling up and producing further publications on ways to spread opportunity and boost growth in poorer areas.

The group is being launched off the back of a new report by the Onward think tank, which claims the Conservatives now have more MP seats in low paid areas than Labour.

The report warns that the UK is one of the most geographically unbalanced developed economies.

In Germany, it says 12% of people live in areas where the average income is 10% below the national average, while in the UK more than a third (35%) do.

The report also states that opportunity is not evenly spread in the UK.

In Greater London over 45% of poorer pupils who were eligible for free school meals progressed to higher education in 2018/19.

Outside London there were 80 local authorities where richer pupils not on free school meals were less likely than this to go to university.

And large cities in the UK grew both their total GDP and their productivity per worker faster than their surrounding areas since 1997.

However, on average cities saw slower growth in income per resident than their surrounding areas.

n rural areas defined by the ONS as “sparse”, people’s income levels are 17-18% lower, and are lower even after controlling for people’s age and qualifications.

The report proposes that government should produce geographical analysis of all budgets and fiscal events, setting out the different impact that tax and spending changes will have on different areas.

It argues the Treasury’s Labour Markets and Distributional Analysis unit should have geographical analysis added to its remit.

‘The coronavirus crisis has only made the case for levelling up stronger so we can get the economy moving in areas that are less well off,’ said MP and taskforce member Neil O’Brien.

‘Our new taskforce will be spearheading this vital agenda.’

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