Johnson’s levelling-up hopes dashed in North East

London is thriving but GDP has fallen in Red Wall amid growing economic divide, latest figures show

BORIS JOHNSON has been accused of failing in his “defining mission” to “level up” Britain after official data showed a growing economic gulf between London and much of the Red Wall.

GDP in the capital surged by 2.3pc in the third quarter of last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, driving overall UK output higher despite a 1.2pc slump in the North East.

Regional data published by the stats body also showed GDP falling in the West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England – all areas the Prime Minister has pledged to level up as part of his efforts to address regional inequality.

Andy Preston, the independent mayor of Middlesbrough, said the figures suggested that Mr Johnson’s plans for growth outside the capital were just empty rhetoric.

He said: “Nobody seems to be able to explain what it is that’s going to happen. What levelling up should mean is that people and communities and places realise that potential.

“What we’ve got, clearly – and these stats bear it out – is the scale of the challenge requires a lot more than slogans and little bits of money. It really requires a concerted, focused effort in the medium term.”

Sir John Armitt, chairman of the UK’S National Infrastructure Commission, said the Government needs “to give more devolution in both powers and longer-term financing” at a local level.

The North East – home to many of the former Labour Red Wall seats that underpin the Prime Minister’s authority – was the worst performing region in England over the period.

The UK economy grew 0.9pc as a whole during the quarter, mostly because of the strong growth in London. The North West also performed strongly, with a 1.2pc rise in output.

All regions had enjoyed strong growth during the previous quarter as the UK rolled back long-standing Covid restrictions. The biggest growth was in the North East over that period, with output expanding by 6.9pc.

In contrast, the third quarter was more normal, with most restrictions having been lifted over the summer, and the beginnings of the fuel and energy price crisis not emerging until mid-september.

The accommodation and food sector was the biggest overall contributor to growth in the period, with a 33.2pc expansion in industry output in London as restaurants reopened their doors.

UK GDP continued to expand in the fourth quarter – regional data for which has not yet been published – rising by 1.3pc. Across last year as a whole it rose 7.4pc, in a rebound from 2020’s 9.3pc drop that represented the biggest annual increase since the Second World War, according to Bank of England estimates.

Paul Swinney, director of policy at the Centre for Cities, said the Government had “done very little publicly” to turn its levelling-up ambitions into a reality since publishing its plans on the topic in February.

In a white paper published earlier this year, the Government said it needed to harness “economic dynamism and innovation to drive growth across the whole country” and vowed to tackle “striking” regional inequality.

The Prime Minister has called levelling up the “defining mission” of his Government, saying the challenges of geographic inequality are “embedded over generations and cannot be dug out overnight”.

Mr Swinney said: “[While] there’s probably not a great deal you can do about one quarter’s worth of data, it should be acting now if it wants to be seeing better data five years down the line, 10 years down the line.”

“That’s how long it will take and I think it is disappointing that there has been so little that has happened since the white paper.”

Mr Preston agreed that the Government must “accelerate” its plans.