The Government have failed to live up to its promise of an ambitious levelling up agenda for Britain’s regions, with a recent Guardian analysis showing no progress been made on half of their levelling up targets. The analysis of the 12 targets set by Michael Gove in his 2022 levelling up white paper shows there has been no progress in six of them, including three where evidence suggests things have got worse. These include education, skills and wellbeing, which have stagnated, and local pride, housing and health, which have deteriorated in the last two years.
To add to this, a recent report from the public accounts committee found only 10% of the £10bn allocated for levelling up had been spent, while 80% of the projects that received money early in the process were due to miss their deadline of completion. Join our guest speakers as they examine the current state of the levelling up agenda; its challenges and missteps, and how a potential future Labour & Co-operative Government can deliver a more effective programme for reducing regional inequality and restoring economic growth.
This online-only Co-op Party Live: Policy event on Reviving grassroots growth – a Labour & Co-operative approach to levelling up will share details of the steps a Labour & Co-operative government can make to address this by genuinely levelling-up those more deprived areas who were initially prioritised to receive this extra funding, so that all the UK benefits. Join us on Wednesday 22nd May at 6pm on Zoom to find out more. Speakers include Graeme Atherton at the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up and Jo Platt, PPC for Leigh.