PM visit nice, but we need to see more levelling up
AS far as I’m concerned Stoke on Trent is the best city with the best people in the country. Full stop. So when news started to filter through that the prime minister had chosen Middleport Pottery in our city for a cabinet meeting prior to dispatching his top team to key sites and businesses for an in-depth understanding of present day challenges – that is surely worth chalking up.
Having worked so hard to save Middleport Pottery as an integral stepping stone to a long term plan for Burslem, I don’t know whether to rejoice in seeing recognition for all that has been achieved at Middleport or despair that there wasn’t a single bid for Burslem in the levelling-up proposals.
Let’s hope that the Cabinet’s focus on Burslem means that this can soon be rectified.
The litmus test for me though is what lasting lessons the PM and cabinet took home from their visit to Stoke-on-trent.
Ten days later, will it have been a 10day wonder or will there be a shift in government policy?
Two points stand out for me. The first point is one that Labour’s Lisa Nandy made when she visited the city the following day.
She rightly emphasised that if levelling up is to mean anything, local people are best placed to know what is best for their area and then deliver it.
As long as central government persists in cutting council budgets and forcing councillors to operate within those budgets, councils are hamstrung.
You can’t take money away from social care, meals on wheels, people with disability and mental health services without it impacting on the quality of life for everyone.
Secondly, where were the proposals to deal with the biggest cost of living crisis this country has faced in our lifetime?
Why is the government sitting on its hands when increasing numbers of people are desperately unable to cope with accelerating energy costs, sharply rising food bills, petrol going through the roof and the increased cost of virtually everything else?
I do believe that the seriousness of the situation has not yet got through to the government.
I can understand that extremely wealthy members of the cabinet would find it difficult to relate to the everyday financial hardship that people face.
But the role of Tory MPS is to provide accurate feedback about the situation on the ground to their colleagues in government.
With some honourable exceptions, they are falling down on the job. Comments like ‘get a better job’ or ‘go and prepare a meal for 30p’ are not helpful.
It is ironic that the only initiative to come out of the Cabinet meeting in Middleport was a proposal to cut 90,000 civil service jobs.
Typically, there was no indication of where the cuts would fall or how already hard pressed services such as those dealing with driving licenses, passports or universal credit would be expected to cope.
It was certainly an opportunity missed in not addressing the cost of living crisis.
But my prediction is that the government will shift its position sooner rather than later. The overwhelming evidence of the sheer hardship and struggle that people are facing will be impossible to ignore.
The government’s focus groups will, I am sure, all be pointing in the same direction and Tory backbenchers will be worried about their majorities.
It is not as if the scope for a support package is limited. First and foremost, raising benefits is the quickest and most effective way of helping those in most need and at the very least the £20 per week uplift in universal credit should be restored.
Another obvious solution is a windfall tax on the super profits of North Sea energy companies to cut energy bills.
In addition, VAT on fuel could be abolished and there could be a temporary cut in VAT across the board.
Other measures could include increasing the warm homes discount and the pensioners’ fuel allowance.
It would also make sense to bring forward now the income tax cut.
Ministerial visits have a vital role to play providing they are genuinely fact finding and there is a follow up.
The visit to Middleport and engagement with people from Stokeon-trent has hopefully shown how essential it is for government to end indecision over the cost of living crisis.
Let’s hope that this may turn out to have been the first step in a massive change in direction by the government.