Truss not as focused on levelling up
IT’S out with the old and in with the new at Number 10 Downing Street in a momentous week which saw the country’s fourth Prime Minister in six years take office.
But with the arrival of Liz Truss (who as she reminded people repeatedly during the Tory leadership campaign, went to school in Leeds) to our top political office, will the political focus now shift from the North of England?
There will be many who feel that despite Boris Johnson’s promises to Northern voters, his three-year term ended with most feeling no better off and with regional gaps in opportunity and quality of life actually widened.
But under his premiership the issue of how unequal our nation has become was at least on the agenda. With Ms Truss now calling the shots, the ideology and priorities of government are likely to be very different.
The new PM takes on the job facing immediate pressure to act over the energy bills crisis which threatens to leave millions destitute.
A little further down her nightmare inbox are the tasks of rejuvenating the sluggish economy, fixing the country’s battered public services and keeping her own divided party in line.
The Levelling Up agenda introduced by her predecessor is likely to come much further down the list, a fact likely to be reflected in the amount of attention her government gives the topic.
Ms Truss has at least appointed a Northerner – Middlesbrough MP Simon Clarke – to lead the Levelling Up department.
And MPS from Grimsby and Bishop Auckland – Lia Nici and Dehenna Davison – will serve as junior Ministers.
But rather than having a distinct Minister for the North – an idea Ms Truss promised to back on the campaign trail – this role will apparently be filled by Mr Clarke himself.
How easy it will be to effectively advocate for the North of England when your job requires you to also represent the South, East and West remains to be seen.
Professor Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester, said levelling up “is clearly not going to be as big a priority for Liz Truss and even if it was she is not going to have the bandwidth to do very much given everything else that is going on.”
The academic added: “That may not be a bad thing as her instincts on improving economic performance across the country seem to be largely based on tax cutting, free markets and for government getting out of the way.
“Finally there’s the money – I suspect more and more of limited levelling up funds will be swallowed up by inflation and keeping the lights on in essential services.”