levelling up

[borcy]

https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/economic-gr...


There doesn't seem much in the news about levelling up, even with an election coming up.

Sunak seems to have backed away from it. I would have thought Labour might be on this as it's more likely to be aimed at their traditional areas. However Starmer seems pretty quiet about it.

[GetCarter]

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

[S600BSB]

GetCarter said:

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

Would we want them though? Bringing a load of Tory MPs north would do nothing for the crime figures either.

[borcy]

GetCarter said:

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

I think it was on here, i said the leg to London of hs2 would be the only leg built.

The only way to built all of it was to build the london leg last not first.

[Ian Geary]

The local government chronicle offers good insight into this (from a council perspective)


https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/devolution-and-ec...

You can get one free article a month.



I'm not sure labour even need to make this a battle ground though: the Rishi "judge me on my performance" is already a gift for labour, and honestly I think very few voters make their decision on an actual analysis of manifestos and government performance.

[GetCarter]

S600BSB said:

GetCarter said:

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

Would we want them though? Bringing a load of Tory MPs north would do nothing for the crime figures either.

Don't worry, there won't be many of them after the next election.

[119]

GetCarter said:

S600BSB said:

GetCarter said:

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

Would we want them though? Bringing a load of Tory MPs north would do nothing for the crime figures either.

Don't worry, there won't be many of them after the next election.

To be fair, i doubt anyone would move there through choice.

[Dingu]

[redacted]

[leef44]

I read somewhere recently that there are proposals to move some of the civil service departments north away from London.

The research which drives government policy comes from the civil service so this would help to move away from the London bias.

The scepticism in me would suggest it would take at least ten years to enact if this proposal goes ahead.

[Mrr T]

borcy said:

https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/economic-gr...


There doesn't seem much in the news about levelling up, even with an election coming up.

Sunak seems to have backed away from it. I would have thought Labour might be on this as it's more likely to be aimed at their traditional areas. However Starmer seems pretty quiet about it.

Personally I could never understand levelling up. The fact is the South includes some of the most deprived towns in the UK.

[oyster]

Is there actually any levelling up needed?

It was all just hot air spouted by Boris to engage with Red Wall voters.

It’s not real.

There’s no London bias. There IS a big city bias, which won’t change with moving civil servants to Leeds and Manchester. They aren’t going to be moving to Darlington and Morecambe.

[nyt]

Walthamstow in London received 2 levelling up grants - this is one of them.

I have to admit that I didn't understand that the 'levelling up' that Boris spoke of could refer to a museum in a fairly prosperous part of London

https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/news/first-...

[borcy]

Mrr T said:

Personally I could never understand levelling up. The fact is the South includes some of the most deprived towns in the UK.

Levelling up includes everywhere, but more likely to be required the further the distance from london.

[S600BSB]

GetCarter said:

S600BSB said:

GetCarter said:

I've said for years that Parliament should be moved to the north of England. Then, and only then would they start levelling up.

Would we want them though? Bringing a load of Tory MPs north would do nothing for the crime figures either.

Don't worry, there won't be many of them after the next election.

That’s true I suppose.

[GetCarter]

[redacted]

[Randy Winkman]

leef44 said:

I read somewhere recently that there are proposals to move some of the civil service departments north away from London.

The research which drives government policy comes from the civil service so this would help to move away from the London bias.

The scepticism in me would suggest it would take at least ten years to enact if this proposal goes ahead.

That is something that's already happening.

https://workplaceinsight.net/government-brings-for...

A quote from it;

"It comes as new figures today (December 2023) show that 16,061 roles have already been moved out of London, exceeding the commitment to relocate 15,000 roles by 2025 as part of the Places for Growth programme."

London office costs are a big part of the motivation.

[cheesejunkie]

I can very easily understand why Starmer is not making it a campaign big issue. Beyond a bit of tokenism there's not much that can easily be done in terms of moving the economy from London and he'd get a much rougher ride being asked about it than Johnson did with empty promises.

I've no strong opinions on HS2 other than being utterly annoyed at how bad the UK has become at infrastructure projects vs some of our European neighbours. The cost's atrocious, the cost per mile's atrocious, but there's no appetite to deal with why that's the case. It's just assumed that there's no escaping those costs when there are ways, some won't like them, but there are ways. I'm for the many not the few .

Levelling up outside London was always a pie in the sky project with no targets or metrics but some fell for it. Regional devolution with proper ability to manage budgets and a fair distribution is about as good as it's going to get and conservative party HQ are very against that.

A few CS departments moving area is nice but overall not going to move the needle.

Edited by cheesejunkie on Sunday 17th December 16:05

[borcy]

There's not much the government can do or not much anyone can do?

[TeaNoSugar]

leef44 said:

I read somewhere recently that there are proposals to move some of the civil service departments north away from London.

The research which drives government policy comes from the civil service so this would help to move away from the London bias.

The scepticism in me would suggest it would take at least ten years to enact if this proposal goes ahead.

Loads of civil service depts are outside of London - they are a big presence in Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Darlington, Cardiff, just off the top of my head. There will be other departments around the UK. The problem is that the more senior you go the more London-centric it becomes. Those at the very top (permanent sec’s, senior civil servants etc.) seem to remain firmly embedded around central London.

[Tom8]

With so much home working still the norm and companies now recruiting nationally rather than locally, is levelling up a lesser need now as wealth comes into different areas through flex working? Do they need to bother as much?