BORIS: WE’LL LEVEL UP... FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
BORIS Johnson will today promise that his plan to “level up” the UK will boost living standards in every part of the country.
In a speech about the post-Covid recovery, the Prime Minister will set out his hopes of restoring a “sense of pride” in communities that have felt neglected for decades.
But he will insist he aims to tackle the soaring house prices and lengthening commuter journeys that blight supposedly better-off areas too.
The PM is expected to say: “We will have made progress in levelling up when we have begun to raise living standards, spread opportunity, improved our public services and restored people’s sense of pride in their community.”
His speech is likely to be seen as an attempt to reassure Conservative MPs in the south of England that he will not abandon the party’s traditional heartlands to hold on to the “red wall” of former Labour seats, captured in the North at the 2019 general election.
Mr Johnson, who will spell out his vision for a level future on a visit to the West Midlands, will argue that spreading prosperity and opportunity more evenly across the whole of the United Kingdom will prevent economic “overheating” caused by population surges into a few well-heeled enclaves.
He is expected to say previous Labour and Tory governments have focused investment too much in “areas where house prices are already sky high and where transport is already congested”.
He will add: “By turbo- charging those areas – especially in London and the South-east – you drive prices even higher and you force more and more people to move to the same expensive areas.
“The result is their commutes are longer, their trains are more crowded, they have less time with their kids.
“They worry at the same time that the younger generation won’t be able to get a home and that their leafy suburb or village will be engulfed by new housing development, but without the infrastructure to go with it.”
Mr Johnson will contrast his vision of “levelling up” with the “levelling down” approach of the Left, which he
insists seeks to create equality by confiscating wealth.
Speaking about his Government’s approach, the PM will say: “It is vital to understand the difference between this project and levelling down.
“We don’t want to decapitate the tall poppies. We don’t think you can make the poor parts of the country richer by making the rich parts poorer.”
He will add: “Levelling up is not a jam-spreading operation. It’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“It’s not zero sum – it’s win win.” The Prime Minister will also predict that the UK’s successful vaccine roll-out will help fuel a strong economic recovery in the year ahead.
And he will say: “Levelling up can only be achieved with a strong and dynamic wealth-creating economy.
“There must be a catalytic role for government, and government is there to provide a strategic lead.
“But that requires consistency – not chopping and changing.”
Mr Johnson’s speech comes ahead of a “levelling up” Government White Paper policy document, due to be published in the autumn, that will set out new measures to boost regional growth.
And it follows Tory tensions about complaints that the party is neglecting its core vote.
Last month, the Conservatives were defeated by the Lib Dems in the Chesham and Amersham by-election after a campaign dominated by the HS2 rail project and the Government’s planning laws shake-up.
Some Tories fear the PM’s drive to slash planning regulations in a bid to speed up the building of homes and major transport projects is alienating southern voters.
But the “levelling up” policy has been at the heart of his Brexit vision for the UK ever since he took office in 2019.
And the Prime Minister has refused to allow the spiralling costs of the response to the Covid pandemic – now exceeding £400billion – to diminish his enthusiasm for the approach.
Mr Johnson insists his “levelling up” plans will provide vital economic investment to help Britain’s economy bounce back from the downturn caused by the Covid lockdowns.
The Treasury has established a £4.8billion fund to support town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets.