Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Accepted
Adopt a sustained, long-term approach to Levelling Up with secure, ongoing funding.
Recommendation
We note the significant cross-party consensus there appears to be for the challenges that the Levelling Up policy is seeking to solve. We recommend that future Governments take a more sustained and long-term approach to levelling up matched by ongoing and secure funding. This must avoid unnecessary duplication and not lead simply to the creation of more local growth initiatives. Only in this way can the policy begin to address the challenges outlined in the White Paper and ultimately find success in ‘levelling up’ the UK. (Paragraph 111) Funding for Levelling Up 43
Government Response Summary
The government states that the Levelling Up policy is already a long-term program, with missions set until 2030 and provisions for continuation beyond. They also reference a simplification plan to streamline funding and reduce duplication, claiming existing efforts address the recommendation.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
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.