Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 33
33
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 110
Levelling Up unlikely to succeed without long-term strategy and substantive funding.
Conclusion
Based on the evidence we have received and given the historic frequent churn of local economic growth initiatives, it can be argued that levelling up is unlikely to be successful in achieving the objectives it seeks to address. The challenges levelling up seeks to resolve are complex and cannot be remedied by one-off short-term initiatives. To change this, the policy requires a long-term and substantive strategy and funding approach, things this policy currently lacks. Without such, Levelling Up risks joining the short-term Government growth initiatives which came before it.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the concern regarding previous short-term initiatives, asserting that Levelling Up is a long-term programme with 2030 missions and legislative backing to continue beyond. It also notes efforts through a simplification plan to streamline funding and reduce administrative burdens.
Paragraph Reference:
110
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Levelling Up White Paper acknowledged the historic stop-start approach to addressing the UK’s geographic disparities which does not foster community-led regeneration. Previous local economic growth initiatives have lacked long-term thinking, included a huge array of different schemes and have not given local leaders the tools to design and deliver policies for their own places. They have also lacked an understanding on which policies work best in different places due to poor data collection. Levelling Up is a long-term programme with the mechanisms to address each of these failures. The Levelling Up missions, by setting 2030 as their goal, provide clarity about the policy objectives and anchor the policy change necessary to meet them. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill enables missions to continue post 2030. DLUHC also recognises the challenges that the creation of multiple pots of local growth initiatives creates for local authorities. The recently published simplification plan sets out our ambition for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the current funding system. This will be achieved by reducing administrative burdens through streamlining existing processes and simplifying funds into larger pots that local leaders can invest across local strategic priorities.