Top down politics has failed Britain and the economy

TOP DOWN government just doesn’t work and continuing to pursue this approach is severely hampering the country’s economy.

Whitehall doesn’t have the same ground level view as local councils and elected mayors. What works for one area of the country doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for another.

Therefore Labour’s proposals to place a new statutory duty on combined authorities to develop Local Growth Plans is to be welcomed. These plans will need to be backed with the right level of funding.

The Tories are at risk of being outflanked on their own flagship levelling up policy. Progress on which has been paltry at best. The Government has lost sight of the fact that a lot of voters that trusted it at the 2019 general election, did so on promises to level up. However, regional inequality has continued to widen. The gap in earnings with London has grown in every region apart from the South-West since 2010.

Access to new powers over transport, skills, housing, planning, employment support and energy can help local leaders to start the process of tackling challenges in their communities. While at the same time helping the nation to solve its economic growth conundrum. Stakeholders working in partnership with each other from industry bosses and the education sector to local politicians will be key to left behind communities lifting themselves out of poverty.

For an economic recovery to be truly successful all of the nation’s regions need to be contributing and they can only really do that by leaning into their strengths.

The climate crisis also presents an opportunity for regions to catch up to London and the South-East. There’s a lot of skills and expertise in regions like Yorkshire already but that needs to be further harnessed.