MAYOR OF SOUTH YORKSHIRE RESPONDS TO LEVELLING UP WHITE PAPER

Published 2 February 2022 at 4:10pm

Responding to the government's Levelling Up White Paper released today (2nd Feb 2022), Mayor Dan Jarvis said:

"The government’s Levelling Up White Paper is a step in the right direction – but without the means to achieve the positive ambition it sets out.

"We welcome moves to create London-style powers across England, devolve more control over skills, and to spread R&D and culture spending more evenly around the country, as well as the regeneration efforts in Sheffield. If government are ready to put real resources into a partnership driven from South Yorkshire and not SW1, it could be the start of something significant.

"However, a goal which takes eight years to get the rest of the country to the point London is already at is incremental rather than revolutionary, and there is no indication that more substantial powers, like greater control over revenue, will be granted. Mayors and Local Authorities will still largely be left to fight each other for funding pots ultimately controlled by Whitehall.

"Above all, the paper is missing the means to achieve the goals it sets out. Its 12 ‘missions’ are great aspirations – but their Lion-like ambition is matched with mouse-like resources. The money is almost all recycled, and often less than the funds it replaces. In practice, cuts to local government funding since 2018 easily outweigh funding in that period from the main levelling up funds – by an average of £50m, across 144 out of 157 local authority areas.

"Without the funding needed for real change, the government’s promises of levelling up will remain hollow. This White Paper gets some things right, but two long years after the election the Conservatives fought on the promise that levelling up would be their ‘defining mission’, many people across the country will be left asking themselves – is this it?"