Levelling Up

Purpose of report

For direction.

Summary

This paper updates members on our understanding of Government’s Levelling Up agenda and suggests next steps to develop a work programme.

Recommendations The Executive Advisory Board is asked to agree that the City Regions and People and Places Boards lead the LGA’s Levelling Up work. The Executive Advisory Board is asked to comment on place leadership proposals. Action City Regions and People and Places Boards to develop a Levelling Up work programme.

Contact officer:	Rebecca Cox

Position:	Principal Policy Adviser

Phone no:	07921 604 237

Email:	rebecca.cox@local.gov.uk

Levelling Up

Background

In May, the Prime Minister announced his intention to publish a “Levelling Up” White Paper to deliver on manifesto commitments to address differences in productivity and opportunity across the United Kingdom. This follows the announcement of the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund.

Issues

More information on the Levelling Up agenda was set out in the Queen’s Speech:

The Government will bring forward a Levelling Up White Paper later this year, building on actions the Government is already taking to level up across the UK.

This will set out “bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunities in all parts of the UK.” It looks to improve living standards, grow the private sector, improve health, education and policing, strengthen communities and local leadership and restoring pride in place.

It defines levelling up in terms of creating good jobs, skills and productivity in places that have seen economic decline and enabling more people to grasp the opportunities of Brexit and get on in life without feeling they have to leave their local area.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government provided some further insight in his speech to the LGA Annual Conference. Key commitments include:

“ensure there are fewer competitions in the future, more consolidated opportunities to access government funding”

“central government should be working directly with councils and we should avoid filters wherever possible”

“every local council to produce a ten, or twenty-year plan for their town, their city or their communities and for government to work with you in a genuinely place-based way”

“whether we’re talking about housing and infrastructure, economic regeneration and recovery, local government is in the driving seat when it comes to levelling up”

The SoS said the White Paper will “set out these plans in much greater detail and talk about how we can take devolution forwards with that spirit of localism at its heart. The focus will be on tangible, meaningful change for communities and how we can ensure that good, local leadership is encouraged and that local leadership is also given the skills, powers and resources that they need to succeed.” The explicit inclusion of devolution is positive, and we will continue to make the case for devolution as a means of delivering better local outcomes.

Delivery of the wider Levelling Up agenda will be led by Neil O’Brien MP, who will head up a unit in the Cabinet Office answering to Number 10. Tom Walker, recently at Defra but previously a lead MHCLG civil servant in the development of Growth Deals and the early Devolution Deals, will be leading the team. This is a change of leadership away from MHCLG, with the unit having a much wider remit and the ability to drive interventions across Whitehall. Senior LGA officers have had some early engagement with the unit and conversations have thus far been positive.

As we seek to influence Government to move Levelling Up from an agenda to a strategy that delivers for communities through local government, we can showcase local government’s ability to deliver effectively and at pace and to make a real difference in people’s lives, building on councils’ and combined authorities’ remarkable efforts during the pandemic.

The LGA’s ‘Build Back Local’ campaign, launched at annual conference, highlights how with the right investment and powers, national and local government can work together to achieve a shared ambition: levelling up communities across all parts of the country. The campaign will provide the framework within which we will progress our work on the Levelling Up White Paper, publicise research and analysis, and link to key milestones such as the Spending Review.

The scope of the Levelling Up agenda extends across most, if not all, of the LGA’s policy boards, and our response to the White Paper will need to be informed by work across many areas of our business plan. However, some of the key features – skills and employment, devolution, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and leadership of local growth – are led by the City Regions and People and Places Boards. The Boards are well placed to lead the LGA’s Levelling Up work, working with other Boards as needed.

Members are asked to agree that the City Regions and People and Places Boards lead on the LGA’s influencing of and response to the Levelling Up White Paper.

The apparent renewal of Ministers’ interest in place-based work; councils’ well-regarded role in the pandemic response; local communities’ experiences of their immediate neighbourhoods since last Spring and the placing of the Levelling Up unit at the heart of Government all provide productive context for a refresh of our vision for local leadership of place. At their June meetings, the Boards asked officers to develop a work programme that will shape our response to the White Paper but also consider local government’s role as leaders of place in the context of the societal changes driven or accelerated by the pandemic.

Given this context, Board members agreed that this work would focus on outcomes and the benefits that arise from bringing decisions closer to communities rather than the mechanisms of devolution in England. They also suggested a closer look at the possibilities for greater defragmentation of growth funding for local and national government, and local government’s role in leading on behalf of all communities in a place. The scope of the work would also naturally encompass local government’s relationship with other public services, civil society and businesses.

Members are asked to suggest other areas of interest concerning leadership of place for consideration.

Devolution will continue to be important for our membership and we will continue to work closely with the Devolution APPG who are engaging with Government following the success of their recent report “Levelling Up Devo.”

The principle of differential devolution is an established LGA line and should continue to underpin our lobbying work. Mayors, combined authorities and their constituent members that benefitted earliest from devolution will want to ensure that ‘levelling up’ does not act as a cap on ambition and they are empowered to go further on behalf of their communities. Those councils who were not able to sign devolution deals will also want to see a clear message from government on its expectations for governance and accountability in a way that works for non-metropolitan areas in particular.

Officers are also mindful of Government’s strong focus on the Union and the current Council of Europe review of UK local governance, to which the LGA has contributed, giving rise to the possibility of a fresh debate on devolution in England. The LGA’s previous work on devolution stands it in good stead to respond quickly should this be the case.

Implications for Wales

Wales is on its own devolution journey. Officers liaise with the WLGA and the associations of all UK nations on areas of shared interest.

Financial Implications

Proposed work can be undertaken from within the Boards’ budget.

Next steps

City Regions and People and Places Boards to lead a Levelling Up work programme, including a refresh of the LGA’s work on leadership of place.