#14 How do we create a country that works for all places?
Amid global uncertainty, we need our economy to be firing on all cylinders. But Britain is uniquely centralised, leaving many parts of the country unable to stand on their own two feet.
Our new report, ‘Nation Rebalanced’, sets out the stark inequalities between places and how this hampers growth and the aspirations of people in every place. And, four major recommendations in the report offer a path for how we can drive economic growth, improve infrastructure, and create an economic model that benefits all regions.
Nation Rebalanced is endorsed by Chris Curtis MP, Co-Chair of the Labour Growth Group and Jo White MP, Convenor of the Red Wall Group of Labour MPs. This represents the first time leaders from these two highly influential backbench groups have collaborated to back a set of policy proposals.
‘Levelling Up’ was nothing more than a rhetorical flourish
Life expectancy differs by a decade between Blackpool and Hampshire. House prices in many places puts home ownership out of the reach of working people. Stagnating economies and high streets are scattered across the country. Trust in politicians declines the further you get from Westminster.
We often think about the symptoms here, but the underlying cause has been a political choice. For too long, we have pushed economic activity into one corner of the country, creating a model that ends up benefitting nowhere.
To change this, we must learn from the failures of the past. The former Levelling Up minister recently described elements of it as ‘performative’. And our polling shows that 52% of people think that Levelling Up failed - compared to just 13% who think it was a success - a ratio of 4:1 with a consensus across all regions and voting intentions.
And, new analysis in the report shows that we concentrate public spending on growth into the Greater South East around London. Comparing the Greater South East with the rest of England, the gap is £668 (19%) per head. Despite the rhetorical flourish of Levelling Up, this gap has only grown since 2010 - and was the same in 2023-24 as it was in 2019-20.
A new model is needed
A different approach is possible - one that will grow all parts of the country and rebalance the nation.
We call for four actions:
Use deeper planning reform, pension reform and smarter regulation, to create a self-sustaining engine of privately led growth particularly in the Greater South East. This would maximise development potential through already-announced projects, for example: the third runway at Heathrow, more homes in the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, all supported by existing public investment like East West Rail.
Change national government spending patterns and the Green Book to rebalance public growth spending outside the Greater South East. The government should rebalance public spending to drive economic growth in other parts of the country. This would be supported by further reform to the Treasury’s Green Book, the guidance which helps departments appraise policies and projects, but which is also often blamed for wealthier areas receiving more investment.
Increase the spending and autonomy of the ‘Established Mayoral Authorities’ to deliver growth as quickly as possible in underperforming cities. As seen in the South East, we should expect public investment to start to leverage private sector investment too and also to benefit the regions around them as London does.
Create ‘growth corridor plans’ agreed between national government and strategic authorities around major transport schemes to spread the benefits across regions. For example, the Transpennine Route Upgrade will cost over £10bn, but previous governments failed to develop a growth plan for it. A ‘Transpennine Growth Corridor’ chaired by a government minister and bringing together the local mayors could marshall investment along the route in transport, housing and businesses into something greater than the sum of its parts.
Addressing this historic issue will require more than the proposals here. But we must start now. This means going beyond piecemeal policies like Levelling Up or thinking as a country that redistribution from one part to the rest will suffice. A new model would meet the moral, economic and political aspirations of the whole country - creating a nation rebalanced.
JP Spencer
Director of Devolution Policy, Labour Together
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