The Levelling Up White Paper presents an opportunity to reset the relationship between central and local government and put councils at the heart of delivering the Government’s ambitious programme to improve opportunities in all parts of the country.
The Government launched the prospectus for the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund alongside the Budget 2021. The Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets. The Government has identified priority places based on an index of local need to receive capacity funding to help them co-ordinate their applications.
How levelling up agenda can be achieved for North?
The Northern Powerhouse aimed to promote economic growth in core cities through improvements to infrastructure, education, science, and innovation.
The UK2070 Commission – an independent inquiry into the UK’s city and regional inequalities – produced a report highlighting the extent of UK’s North South divide. The report found that a child qualifying for free school meals in Hackney, London, is three times more likely to attend university than a child growing up in Hartlepool under similar economic circumstances.
It is likewise predicted that pupils in the South of England are 40% more likely to achieve top GCSE grades than those in the North of England, who at the same time, are vastly underrepresented at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The government’s levelling up agenda been criticised for adopting a largely ‘place-oriented’ approach which neglects the people there within. The consultancy company Frontier Economics stresses that effective regional policy is ‘people-orientated’, and aims to enhance the employment and salary prospects of those living in particular areas.
In a document published today by the Convention of the North and the NP11 group of northern local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), northern leaders set out the five “gamechangers” which, through collaboration across the North and with Government, will grow an inclusive economy that delivers for the North and the country, while also tackling the health inequalities that have been laid bare by COVID-19. Those game changers are:
Leading the Green Industrial Revolution
Closing the healthy life expectancy gap between the North and South through innovation
Closing the education and skills gap
Improving connectivity in towns and cities in the North
Increasing private and public investment in R&D spending in the North
Skills and trainings are vital to levelling up. We believe trainings provide a huge opportunity to level up skills. A skilled workforce can deliver the gamechanger projects to achieve levelling up agenda. Look at our trainings list and contact us today to arrange in-house trainings for your workforce.
Zeenara Najam
i-Select Consultancy