It seems the Treasury too is not convinced levelling up budgets are good value. Their scepticism is valid.
What is levelling up? Money to smarten up town centres in slow growth locations, or seed corn to make slow growth locations into fast growth locations? The two are fundamentally different.
Levelling up literally means what it says. And delivering it will take decades. International experience shows how difficult it is to achieve. It cannot be delivered in one five year electoral cycle. There is little evidence Michael Gove is treating levelling up with the seriousness it demands. Which is why the Treasury is right. If the Treasury stick to their guns, until they see credible levelling up plans this decision might inject some grown up thinking. Once again, we have to wait and see.
I spent more than 30 years talking to the senior executives of small, fast growth companies about their first or second generation head offices. OK, these meetings usually took place in Reading, suggesting their search ambitions were not national. There were’nt. Europe was often the fall back if the Thames Valley could not deliver. Often this was a challenge. Changing this mind-set will be a grown up challenge for serious politicians.
Ian Campbell
13 February 2023
