Levelling up plan ‘win-win’ for UK
BORIS Johnson has conceded he offered the “skeleton” of plans to level up the nation when he proposed greater regional devolution in a speech billed as a major bid to define his vision for the UK.
The Prime Minister suggested county leaders could possibly get fresh powers and reiterated plans for investment on infrastructure, education and regeneration, but offered few new details for his great ambition.
He promised that boosting the North will not be to the detriment of the South, as he tried to keep traditional Tory voters onside while courting former Labour supporters in the North and Midlands.
One new proposal in the speech at the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre in Coventry yesterday was to “rewrite the rule book” to take a “more flexible approach to devolution” in England.
He said local leaders in towns should be “given the tools to make things happen for their communities”.
“To do that we must take a more flexible approach to devolution in England,” Mr Johnson said. “We need to rewrite the rulebook with new deals for the counties and
there is no reason why our great counties cannot benefit from the same powers we’ve devolved to city leaders.”
But he cautioned “we must get the right local leadership” so there cannot be a “one size fits all template”, as he criticised the “loony left”.
“One possibility is a directly elected mayor for individual counties. And if you can think of a better title than mayor for somebody who represents a county then please send me an email,” he added.
No 10 said that new “county deals” will potentially allow more areas to “benefit from strong, high-profile local champions”.
A levelling-up policy paper is expected to be published in the autumn, where more detail should be fleshed out.
Mr Johnson described his levelling-up vision as an attempt to fix the UK’s “unbalanced economy”, which he said means “for too many people geography turns out to be destiny”. He reiterated commitments to rolling out gigabit broadband, investing in rail and roads, giving the guarantee of “great education” to all children, and boosting funding for science and technology and tackling crime.
He said: “Levelling up is not a jamspreading operation, it’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul, it’s not zero sum - it’s win-win for the whole United Kingdom.”
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “Boris Johnson - the actual Prime Minister - in a speech that was supposed to set out his policies to address regional inequality, asked the public to email him with ideas.”
Confederation of British Industry director-general Tony Danker welcomed the commitment to greater regional devolution.
“The PM is right to recognise the importance of creating confidence among businesses to invest, and empowering local leaders to deliver,” he said.