‘Let go of power to clear way for North to level up’

A NORTHERN think-tank has urged Rishi Sunak to “finally let go of power and resources” from Westminster so local leaders can carry out his government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda themselves.

The Chancellor is expected to use today’s Budget to set out more details of how key funding pots such as the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund and the Shared Prosperity Fund will work.

But the IPPR North thinktank has warned that unless local authorities get more control over how the money is spent this would amount to no more than “a series of one-off funding pots and rearranging the office furniture of the Treasury”.

Richmond MP Mr Sunak told The Yorkshire Post last week that “plans to level up and spread opportunity across the UK” were central to the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

He added: “We are committed to our plans to spread prosperity to every corner of the UK as we build back better from the pandemic.”

And Sarah Longlands, Director of IPPR North, said the North’s recovery “will be co-ordinated and led by the people and businesses who live and work here”.

She added: “It is their ambition and innovation which will secure a better future post pandemic rather than a series of one-off funding pots and rearranging the office furniture of the Treasury.

“So for example, the Levelling Up Prospectus and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund should not be administered by Whitehall, but be devolved directly to Combined and Local Authorities.”

The Levelling Up Fund, which was announced in November’s spending review, will make £4.8bn available to “invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities”. It will replace local growth funding streams, such as the Local Growth Fund and future rounds of the Towns Fund, which have seen hundreds of millions of pounds distributed around Yorkshire.

The Shared Prosperity Fund replaces the £2.1bn a year the UK received through its membership of the European Union and will be used to “reduce inequalities between communities”.

Boris Johnson’s government won its majority on the back of making major gains in Yorkshire and the North in the 2019 General Election, after promising to ‘level up’ the country by investing in the economy outside London and the South East.

Since then critics say little has been achieved to fulfil the promises by the Prime Minister and his allies.