Wales let down by levelling-up agenda

‘LEVELLING-UP” is such a central policy in Boris Johnson’s programme for government that it was reasonable to assume its rollout would be managed with exemplary efficiency.

Unfortunately that has proved to be far from the case.

Last year, when a number of schemes were launched, the timing led to criticism that after long delays the implementation was rushed.

The strong impression was given that the UK Government didn’t have a clear idea about how to put into practice what had proved to be a vote-winning election strategy.

Local authorities were invited to compete with one another by bidding for grants to run projects they nominated.

There were complaints that once the programme was announced, councils were left with very little time to work up ideas, leading to concerns that the projects put forward were not of the highest quality.

But objections were more fundamental than that.

If the purpose of the programme is to increase prosperity in areas that have been disadvantaged, it surely makes no sense to insist that councils are forced to compete for funding.

A coherent policy would be to direct public investment to poorer areas based on a needs-based formula.

That, of course, was how EU aid money was distributed before Brexit.

The fact that the UK Government has chosen to jettison such a process, coupled with its decision to bypass the Welsh Government in the distribution of funds, lends credibility to concerns that it is engaging in “pork barrel” politics, where projects are approved on the basis of patronage rather than need.

All of these points were made in relation to the first round of postBrexit regional aid funding last year.

What makes the situation all the more worrying this year is that lessons appear not to have been learned.

Andrew Morgan, the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, has now expressed serious concern about the second round of funding.

Projects are supposed to be up and running from the beginning of April, yet less than two and a half months before the starting date councils still haven’t been asked to submit bids.

The UK Government is letting Wales down. It’s high time it lived up to its promises and took its responsibilities seriously.