North could take a generation to properly level up
Ex-adviser on Tories’ election challenge
A FORMER Government special adviser has said proving levelling up is working will be a challenge for Ministers at the next election as he said it was a “generational project”.
The levelling up agenda became a key part of the Government’s 2019 election victory, and has since been a thread running through various Government initiatives.
It has been difficult to get an exact definition of the phrase, but it is widely accepted to mean improving life chances and opportunities in areas traditionally considered ‘left behind’, and is often used in the context of the North/ South divide.
But speaking on The Yorkshire Post’s political podcast, Pod’s Own Country, this week, former special adviser Peter Cardwell said he did not feel voters yet “got” what levelling up was, and that bringing former Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry back into Government could be a step in the right direction.
“I think that the Government realises that the North is something which is really, really important. The Northern Powerhouse is really important, levelling up is really important,” he said.
“But that message kind of hasn’t got through, and I think a lot of people don’t understand what levelling up is.”
Mr Cardwell said while there were positive announcements “it
has to be a lot more, it has to be very, very tangible”, and he pointed to freeports – special economic zones with different rules to make it easier and cheaper to do business – as an example.
But he said: “And then we have to get to a state – which is probably a generational project, actually, it’s not going to happen in a few years – where living in Workington or West Yorkshire or wherever is as good and you have as many opportunities as living in London.”
He added: “It’s a real risk, actually, to say your life is going to be perfect by 2024.”
He said: “In terms of the priorities of the 2019 election, such as ‘Get Brexit Done’, that’s a very tangible thing that has happened,” he said.
“The second bit of that, [to] unleash Britain’s potential of which levelling up was a key element, is much more difficult to both do and communicate that it’s done.
“So I think the Conservatives will be able to point to some things that are done and some improvements that are there by 2024, but it’s naive to think in that short space of time that all problems can be solved, essentially, and that levelling up can happen.”
Mr Cardwell previously worked with former Northern Powerhouse Minister, and now chairman of the powerful Northern Research Group (NRG) Jake Berry, and he said he would not be surprised to see him back around the Cabinet table in a future reshuffle.
“The power of Boris Johnson will be decided, there’s almost a barometer, on whether Jake is back in the Cabinet or not, and I think that there’s a strong possibility he will be,” he said.
It’s a real risk to say your life is going to be perfect by 2024. Former special Government adviser Peter Cardwell.