Northern leaders call for levelling up to be "hard-wired into law"

There are calls for the government to 'hard-wire into law' changes that would help to 'level up' the north.

Mayors, civic and business leaders are calling on the Government and Opposition to commit to moving away from the current system, which they say is competitive and pits northern towns and cities against each other.

An annual 'Conference of the North' is being held today, this year in Manchester.

The calls follow the Government’s Levelling Up Fund announcement last week, which saw millions given out by the government for local projects.

But critics say the funding is short-term and saw many council areas lose out.

Instead, local leaders say the government should follow the german model where laws there guarantee equivalent living standards.

They have highlighted a number of areas which they say need to be improved in order to increase equality between different regions of the UK.

• Increasing life expectancy

• Increasing average weekly earnings

• Improving qualifications

• Reducing the number of households in fuel poverty

The plans to hard-wire levelling up into UK law will be set out by Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Jamie Driscoll, Mayor of the North of Tyne, at Convention of the North in Manchester.    

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said:

"The Levelling Up Fund announcement last week laid bare the issues with these short-term competitive funding pots. We end up with winners and losers but nobody is able to actually plan for long-term investment in their areas. 

"Hard-wiring levelling up into UK law would move us away from policy by press release and start to tackle the unequal living standards we have in our country. If we were able to close the gaps between the North and London and the South East, we’d see drastic improvements in everything from incomes to skills, to ultimately boosting life expectancy. 

"This would of course be good for people in the North, but would also help grow the UK economy as a whole.

North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, said:

"You can’t level up by pouring a load of concrete. We need to level up our people too. This takes long-term thinking and a baked-in commitment to strategic investment. In my patch we have shown what’s possible, creating 4,600 new jobs in 3.5 years and increasing adult skills enrolments by 50%.

"We must bin the beauty pageant of competitive bidding between councils. We need to replace it with a new social settlement that finally proves to the apprentice in Blyth that they are just as important to the future of this country as the graduate in Kensington."

South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said:

"It shouldn’t matter where you happen to be born or live, we all deserve the same opportunities and living standards. Here in South Yorkshire that’s simply not the case.

"If you live in Rotherham you’re likely to die five years earlier than if you live in Richmond. If you live in Barnsley you’re paid £600 less a month than if you live in Berkshire. We were promised a ‘London style transport system’, but 1 in 3 of our trains are cancelled.

"The Government set out its own ambitions to level up by 2030. We have just 362 weeks to go, and the truth is, they have no plan.

"They have no strategy. Instead, we compete with other, equally deserving regions for pots of money handed out at the whims of ministers. Communities like those I represent cannot take control of their own destiny. That needs to change for our country to thrive."

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, said:

"For every minute on the roughly two-hour train journey from the Liverpool City Region to London, household income per head falls by £155.

"That’s a gap we’ll never be able to close unless Westminster gets over its obsession with competitive beauty contests that pit areas against each other for short-term pots of funding. It affects our ability to properly plan for the long term and distracts energy and resources away from getting on with delivering for our residents.

“Delivering proper levelling up – which should be more about tackling entrenched inequalities than vanity projects and photo ops at shiny buildings – is something that must be above party politics. But we all know how governments of all stripes can struggle with long-term thinking.

"That is why we need this to be a legal requirement. Only then will we begin to close the yawning chasm between North and South, and enable our residents to reach their full potential."

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: 

"Last week, the government handed twice as much funding to London and the South East than to Yorkshire, laying bare the fundamental flaws in its levelling up agenda. This scattergun approach pours cash into areas that already have it, and makes areas in real need compete against each other for the remaining scraps.

"We need a real plan for levelling up, enshrined in law, that requires decent living standards for everybody across the UK. This would mean trusting local leaders with long-term funding pots to make decisions on what is best for the communities they know and serve."

First for all the latest news from across the UK every hour on Hits Radio on DAB, at hitsradio.co.uk and on the Hits Radio app.