IPPR report highlights ‘gap between promises and reality on levelling up’

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.

This year’s State of the North report highlights the gap between promises and reality on levelling up, arguing that we need to further empower those across the North who are already levelling up for themselves and make sure no place or community is left behind.

The report finds the UK is more regionally divided than ever, with patterns of centralisation intensifying, and new funds such as the Levelling Up Fund welcome but not going far enough.

The IPPR found significant gaps between productivity, earnings and access to good jobs when comparing the North with other parts of England, with just under three jobs created in London and the Greater South East for every job created in the North.

They also found a large attainment gap between the North and the rest of England at every level of assessment from Early Years through to GCSE level and beyond.

The IPPR provides three missions for a prosperous North, including building a new economy that promotes widespread prosperity, making the North the engine of the net zero transition, and providing everyone with access to high-quality, life-long education.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, commented on the report: ‘I welcome this report from IPPR North, which shows us that far from the Government understanding what it takes to level up, putting its money where its mouth is and giving us the tools we need, the decisions they have made over the past few years have actually taken us backwards, not forwards. Nowhere is this clearer than in the scrapping of HS2 to Leeds and the watering-down of Northern Powerhouse Rail via Bradford – decisions that will hold our regions back for generations to come.

‘When I was elected Mayor, I said I wanted to work with Government on levelling up West Yorkshire. Since then, we’ve seen the renaming of a Department for Levelling Up and a new Levelling Up Fund for us to bid in to. But this new data from IPPR North shows us that the Fund represents just £32 per head in the North, and an overall loss of £381 per head since 2010, when you factor in Government cuts to local council budgets over the past decade. When you consider that 96p of every pound we pay in tax goes to Whitehall, this represents an extremely unfair deal for the Northern taxpayer. 

‘This system isn’t working. Why should local authorities be pitted against one another, made to bid into small pots of funding, when these pots don’t even replace the money that has been taken away by Central Government over the past few years? The UK Shared Prosperity Fund, introduced to replace EU funding for deprived areas, is 40% less than we received as a member of the EU.

‘If Government were truly committed to levelling up, they wouldn’t need one rebadged department here, or a small pot of funding there. Every department in Whitehall would be tasked with levelling up, and the London-centric thinking of Westminster would be tackled head-on. Most importantly, any Government needs to recognise that in order to address regional inequalities, the solution lies in devolution – moving powers and funding away from Whitehall and closer to the places they affect. We know what we need to level up – just give us the power and money we need to achieve it.’

Photo by Phil Hearing