Levelling Up News: 27 November
This is the sixth newsletter from the Levelling Up Taskforce. If it’s been forwarded on to you, you can subscribe using the link below. If you don’t want to get this, just click the link at the bottom to unsubscribe.
NEWS OF THE WEEK
At Wednesday’s Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a raft of spending to turn the Government’s levelling up agenda into a reality.
£4 billion Levelling Up Fund for local areas to bid directly for projects worth up to £20 million.
New National Infrastructure Bank. Operating UK-wide, and based in the North of England, the institution will lend money to local authorities for key infrastructure projects.
This follows MP Gareth Davies’ report for Onward, which made the case for a British Development Bank to unlock £16bn for investment in lagging regions.
£15 billion for R&D to boost the UK’s research base as well as fund work on net-zero and coronavirus.
Green Book review to redress the regional imbalance in public investment in infrastructure and support levelling up. Onward called for this in a report from March earlier this year.
VIEW OF THE WEEK
Royston Smith MP, Southampton Itchen
The Levelling Up Taskforce has grown to represent left behind areas covering the length and breadth of the UK. It was in the far south of the UK in Southampton that in 2015 the red wall first began to crumble. More people in Southampton Itchen voted Conservative, particularly on the many council estates because they realised that the Labour Party no longer represented the interests of normal working people.
As members of this group know too well, there is deprivation and inequality of opportunity present throughout the country. Although it is bordered by leafy Hampshire, Southampton is not a prosperous place. It was once the industrial powerbase of the South, the home of the Spitfire, with shipbuilding, automotive and other manufacturing driving the economy. This has now nearly all been lost, with far-reaching consequences for the city. It has been blighted by above average unemployment and below average wages for years.
The fragility of what is left of the Southampton economy has been laid bare by this terrible pandemic. With the loss of industry, jobs were replaced with ones in the leisure and hospitality sectors – in the cruise industry, in restaurants and cafes. Even before these jobs often did not always offer solid careers and were fragile. It is an unfortunate twist that these sectors have been hit the hardest by Covid and unemployment is surging more quickly than the national average.
This pandemic has further shown that it is not just jobs which matter to lift people out of deprivation and build better lives for themselves and their families. We need to attract investment and quality jobs which provide lasting and worthwhile careers. The Government should act swiftly to deliver on promised relocations of Civil Service departments – which would not only offer high quality employment opportunities but should result in better policy decisions which reflect the needs of the whole of the UK.
The last year has made levelling-up more important than ever as a key tenet of the plan for the regrowth of the economy. The recent announcement on a Green Industrial Revolution was very promising. Growth of green industries can replace the jobs which were lost over decades. Investment and support for industry must target the areas and the regions all across the UK which need it most. Only that way can the pledge of building back better come good and support meaningful improvements to the long neglected regional economies within the UK.
MAP OF THE WEEK
Following the Chancellor’s announcement of the Minimum Wage increase, where do minimum wage workers live? Here’s the data for 2019, showing the proportion of employees earning the Minimum Wage by constituency. (Low Pay Commission)
STATS OF THE WEEK
Analysis from the Centre for Economic Performance shows that London is the most upwardly mobile region in the UK - except for intergenerational homeownership.
Children growing up in North West London, whose parents were in the bottom third of occupations, had a 32% chance of reaching the top third. This compares with just a 12% chance in Cumbria.
In suburban London, 45% of children of non-degree holders went on to achieve a university degree themselves. In South Yorkshire, only 29% did so.
But homeownership mobility shows the opposite. In London, 1-in-3 children born to renters and social housing tenants became homeowners later in life. The figure for West Wales is far higher - at 52%.
ABOUT US
The Taskforce is made up of more than 60 (and growing!) Conservative MPs from constituencies right across the country.
Thanks for reading. If you have found this newsletter interesting, please do send it on to a friend.