Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will publish their
white paper on levelling up.
The Minister of State, Home Office and Department for Levelling
Up, Housing & Communities () (Con)
We aim to publish by the end of the year. However, our priority
is to have a White Paper which meets the scale of ambition and
sets out our transformative agenda to deliver real long-term
change across the United Kingdom. Levelling up is at the heart of
this Government’s agenda to build back better after the pandemic.
The recent spending review showed the significant action we are
already taking to empower local leaders, boost living standards,
spread opportunity and restore local pride.
(Con)
My Lords, I welcome the Government’s commitment to levelling up
and to reducing some of the inequalities in our country. But if
levelling up is to be more than a slogan, does it not need
clearly stated objectives, transparency in the allocation of
resources, and measurements so that we can monitor progress? Is
my noble friend able to tick those three boxes?
(Con)
My Lords, in July, the Prime Minister set out that we will have
made progress in levelling up when we have begun to raise living
standards, spread opportunity, improved our public services and
restored people’s sense of pride in their community. The
forthcoming White Paper will set out the further detail, so that
I hope we will be able to tick my noble friend’s three boxes.
(Lab)
My Lords, as the official Social Mobility Commission has made
clear, levelling up is about people as well as places. Why
therefore, to quote the commission, is England the only nation in
the UK without a strategy to address child poverty?
(Con)
My Lords, levelling up covers all these issues. We have an
approach to child poverty and take those issues very seriously
indeed. More detail on these and other matters will of course be
outlined in the forthcoming White Paper.
(CB)
My Lords, further to the question of the noble Lord, Lord Young,
on criteria, I note that the levelling-up fund, the towns fund
and the community renewal fund all prioritise GVA over income
deprivation as a metric to rank places according to need. This
can lead areas with low economic output but affluent households
to rank above places with high-value employment but low local
incomes. Will the White Paper clarify whether the priority for
levelling up is to help the poorest people wherever they live or
to target the least productive localities? How do the Government
want to be judged—on how individuals are faring, or on how far
left-behind areas improve?
(Con)
My Lords, we need to understand that different funds have
different priorities. The £4.8 billion levelling-up fund seeks to
improve infrastructure and productivity, while the UK shared
prosperity fund will deal with the issues around skills and
replaces much of the funding that we saw through the EU
structural funds. We need to see that in the round and, of
course, the White Paper will provide further detail.
(Con)
My Lords, with the much-awaited publishing of the White Paper on
levelling up, growing the private sector is what we all want to
see in progress. As we see businesses planning at record levels
of digital investment, does the Minister agree that priority must
be given to reforming the skills system to better align with
employers’ demands because of the acute skills shortage?
(Con)
I agree entirely with my noble friend. We do not want anyone to
have to leave somewhere they love in order to have a truly
fulfilling career. That is why we are investing £3.8 billion in
skills by 2024-25 and have just set up our new adult numeracy
programme, Multiply, to get hundreds of thousands more adults
with functional numeracy skills across the United Kingdom.
(LD)
Minister, successive Governments have grappled with this one
under various names and the consensus is that they have largely
failed. Do the Government recognise that the fragmented system of
funding and bidding is part of this failure? Recently, the LGA
found evidence that £23 billion of public funds aimed at
regeneration were fragmented across 70 different funding streams
and managed by 22 different departments or agencies. Are there
any signs that the Government will change this scattergun
approach?
(Con)
My Lords, just because previous Governments have failed does not
mean that this Government will not succeed. However, I take on
board the importance of ensuring that there is appropriate
streamlining and that we do not have a scattergun approach to
funding. The point is well made.
(CB)
I declare my role as chair of the Commission on Alcohol Harms.
Have the Government included alcohol harm as the top priority in
the levelling-up agenda, given that, regarding place,
alcohol-related mortality is over 20% higher in the north-east of
England than the English average? Alcohol-related violence is up
to five and a half times more prevalent in lower socio-economic
groups, and alcohol consumption is linked to poorer child
development and poorer general well-being.
(Con)
My Lords, I expected this Question to go in any number of
directions. It is important to address the barriers for people
getting on in life. We are looking to spread opportunities and,
of course, we need to address issues such as alcohol harm, which
the noble Baroness has raised.
(Lab)
I declare my interest as a vice-president of the LGA. Will income
disparity be addressed in the forthcoming White Paper, given that
people in London are paid £16,150 more per year on average than
people in Burnley? Do the Government plan to level up wages?
(Con)
My Lords, I am not sure that is the way to think about these
problems. We need to recognise that, as well as the income
disparity, there is the cost disparity. Admittedly, living in a
great capital city comes at a price. We want to level up some of
the areas that have been left behind. That does not mean we want
a reduction in income in places such as London. We need to ensure
that we lift all boats—that is the philosophy behind levelling
up.
(LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that financial inclusion—that
is, ensuring that people have access to essential banking
services and financial products that are fairly priced—is
particularly important for areas that the Government are looking
to level up, and that incorporating a clear financial inclusion
strategy into the levelling-up agenda could make a big
difference? Can the Minister say whether Treasury and DWP
Ministers who lead on financial inclusion are part of the
Government’s levelling-up agenda?
(Con)
My Lords, financial inclusion is very important in particular
areas, and it is important in addressing it to bind together
different departments. That is why there is a new levelling-up
task force under the leadership of Andy Haldane that brings
together the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
and the Cabinet Office, precisely because we need that Whitehall
join-up.
(Lab)
My Lords, can the Minister tell the House how he believes that
levelling up can be squared with cancelling the eastern leg of
HS2? Is he aware that if HS2 East is cancelled, it will take four
times longer to get to Sheffield and Leeds, and six times longer
to get to Durham and Newcastle, than it takes to get to
Birmingham? Does he appreciate that this will introduce a new
east-west divide into the country, which will be the equivalent
of our Victorian forebears deciding to build the railways in the
western part of the country while leaving the eastern part of the
country with the canals?
(Con)
My Lords, I recognise the noble Lord’s expertise on high-speed
rail. However, I do not want to comment on the specific scheme.
The most important thing for the Government is to back up the
investment we have in transport infrastructure in our city
regions, and we have committed £5.7 billion for transport
settlements for those regions. Of course, decisions about
high-speed rail will be taken in due course.
