Come and visit my decaying hometown, Michael Gove
Michael Gove is a reformer with a record of success. It is good news the Prime Minister has put him in charge of levelling up. With three years until the next general election campaign starts, the Government must rapidly demonstrate progress.
In plotting his strategy, Gove’s first stop should be Nottingham – a city that should make politicians question whether relying on big infrastructure can really level up the country, as many in Government seem to think. A report by the Commission on Prosperity and Community Placemaking will ring a similar alarm about the futility of betting on infrastructure alone when it is published this week.
I consider Nottingham home. Born in a hospital long since demolished, I spent 20 years travelling on its green buses on weekly family visits.
With the series of lockdowns, last month was my first visit for a year.
While people remain as low-keyfriendly as ever – with bus drivers endlessly refusing hard-pressed parents’ cash to pay kids’ fares – it was a depressing experience.
The centre has deteriorated so much it bears no resemblance to the wealthy city it was in the late 1990s. The Broadmarsh Centre is being knocked down, with the giant bus station which adjoined it already gone. No great losses in themselves. However, consequently, many adjacent shops are boarded up as they relocate to areas of higher footfall or close for good.
On the historic market square, the massive boarded-up Debenhams casts a gloomy shadow. Beautiful city centre pubs struggle and one of Nottingham’s best restaurants has just radically downsized.
Always the glamorous centre of the East Midlands, Nottingham feels less safe, less affluent and less fun than little, industrial Derby.
Back to levelling up and the warnings Nottingham provides. In fact, there are two. Firstly, the Government must get a move on improving town and city centres – and high streets particularly.
These are, after all, the beating hearts of our cities; they provide places with their identity and reflect and define civic pride. Nottingham’s centre has declined so far and fast it is hard to see how sufficient progress will be made on the current trajectory.
Secondly, it should emphatically warn the Government about relying on big infrastructure. Nottingham has a superb tram system, an expensively refurbished train station, great road and rail links, plentiful clean buses and easy international airport access. It has the beautiful River Trent and one of the world’s most famous former citizens – in the shape of Robin Hood – to attract tourists. On paper, the city should be thriving, not declining.
The reality is this: big infrastructure alone cannot arrest a city’s decline. It cannot keep shops, restaurants and pubs open; or alleviate homelessness; or prevent open drug use; or clean graffiti; or pick up litter in parks and shared spaces. It cannot make people feel safe or entertain them.
Presently, those advocating big infrastructure spending to level up the country are in the ascendancy. While they have a strong case – indeed, it is perfectly possible Nottingham would fare much worse without great infrastructure – they are ignoring the reality that cities like Nottingham just are not that nice to be in anymore and residents are hiding in their suburbs.
Temperamentally, politicians like big projects. On levelling up, however, they need to begin with the basics: better tax policies to encourage shops to open and stay open; liberalised trading laws to allow these shops to set their own hours; assertive police and security to make people feel safe; street cleaning, litter picking and planting trees and flowers to make places nicer to be around; restoring monuments and historic buildings to foster civic pride; encouraging markets, festivals and carnivals to encourage a sense of community.
This week’s new report by the Commission on Prosperity and Community Placemaking looks to be essential reading.
‘Always the glamorous centre of the East Midlands, Nottingham feels less safe, less affluent and less fun’