Leaders say levelling up has been 'nowhere near enough'

Documents from the Department for Levelling Up show the average planned investment per head next year for the North East was just £1,245, compared to £2,100 in London and the South. 

The blow comes just days after the ten year anniversary of the Northern Powerhouse, former Chancellor George Osborne’s initiative to boost economic growth in the North. 

Now, North East Mayor Kim McGuinness has waded in on the controversy, telling The Echo that the Government has “let us down and committed the cash to the south”. 

Meanwhile, Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said that levelling up has been “nowhere near enough in scale or focus” to make an impact in the region.

Back in 2014, Mr Osborne told how London’s dominance was “not good for our country” - and set out a plan for a country “serious about its long-term economic future”.

George Osborne (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Transport, science and innovation, and power were the three key areas needed to build the Northern Powerhouse in a bid to surge economic growth away from the capital, he said. 

Several years later, in 2019, seats turned blue across the North East, including in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, and Sedgefield, in part on the promise of levelling up the region. 

This played a major part in Boris Johnson's campaign - with the former Prime Minister previously saying he thought the whole area was "going to be one of the great opportunity areas of this country, if not all of Europe”.

The North East has certainly seen positive changes - including through the likes of devolution via the Tees Valley Combined Authority, North of Tyne Combined Authority and most recently the North East Combined Authority.

However, the North East continues to be held back by key issues - with wages and life expectancy among the lowest in the UK and staggeringly high child poverty rates.

Earlier this week, the next Government was told it faces a “mammoth” task to deliver for the region, which has not yet unlocked its full potential. 

The new levelling up analysis looked at factors including planned investment in education, health, housing and regeneration, justice, science and research and transport.

Sadly, the North East was the biggest loser - with figures for the whole of the North and Midlands being listed at just over £1,400. 

Tory Government has ‘let us down’

The Conservative Party manifesto promised “levelling up every part of the UK” after the last election returned nearly 150 Conservative MPs in red wall areas of the North and Midlands. 

However, analysis in March found that less than a fifth of the projects approved by Michael Gove to improve towns across England have been completed. 

The Public Accounts Committee also concluded in March that there were no compelling examples of delivery so far with delays holding back spending. 

Mr Sunak’s Government has previously been slammed as being “less than enthusiastic” over delivering the agenda - with Labour’s Angela Rayner recently adding that the Northern Powerhouse and levelling up slogans have been “exposed as a scam and a sham”. 

Party leaders Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak have both recently penned op-eds for The Northern Echo, talking about their plans for the next government and how they plan to level up the region.

Labour leader Starmer argued that working people in the North East were “paying the price” for 14 years of “Tory chaos and division”. 

He said that the changed Labour Party is “back in the service of working people” with a “clear plan that will make a real difference to the lives of people across the North East”. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak argued that the area was “taken for granted and neglected by Labour".

He said the Conservatives have “transformed” the region - citing the work of Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen - and added that the party will “never take you for granted”. 

‘Broken promises’

Henri Murison said: “Over the last parliament, we have seen the former European Union funding slashed when replaced by the new Shared Prosperity Fund, despite the referendum and last Conservative manifesto promising the opposite. 

“This has hit the Tees Valley and County Durham harder than most. The Prime Minister now wants to abolish this decades-old approach to funding most challenging areas to pay for a National Service vanity project. 

Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (Image: Press release)

“A Levelling Up Fund bidding process that shortchanged the council in County Durham.

“Overall, our verdict is that Levelling Up has been nowhere near enough in scale or focus to make a serious impact on productivity, nor actually done quickly enough with trust in places to see anything visible which voters may give credit for electorally.”

Kim McGuinness said: “The Government committed to levelling up the north and then as always, let us down and committed the cash to the south.

“This latest evidence of more broken promises will come as no surprise to the people of our region. We all remember Rishi Sunak’s HS2 saga which saw him scrap a railway to the North to fix potholes in London.

Kim McGuinness (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

“It’s time we saw integrity in government once again. We want a government committed to a new era of devolution- willing to hand more money and decision making to the people of our region and end the days of Whitehall having a bigger say over our future than the residents of the North East.

“As Mayor, I want to work with government to futureproof northern investment to create opportunity for everyone that lives here. 

“Rishi Sunak and the Tories dire record and complete failure on levelling up proves they don’t have that same commitment to the people of our region.”

Region ‘forgotten’ under Labour - Houchen

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “People across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool know what levelling up looks and feels like. 

“We have had more than £2bn of Government funding since I was election in 2017, which works out at over £2,600 for every man, woman and child across our area - way above the average for those in London.

Ben Houchen (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

"All of our local areas have received £20m of Levelling Up funding for local priorities. We have had £160m for our Investment Zone. We have our £450m devolution settlement. We have had £210m of adult education funding. We have had £100m for Darlington Station.

“We have had another £1bn for local Transport projects. We have had £15m for our airport and MDC. And further Town’s Deal money has been given to the likes of Eston for the new baths and Thornaby to regenerate the town centre. The list goes on.

"This is all in addition to the £256m of Government funding which has been used to remediate the former steelworks site, allowing us to have already secured 9,000 jobs and £1.3bn in business rates for the local area.

Recommended reading:

• Ten years of the Northern Powerhouse: Much work still to do
• Northern Powerhouse at 10: New government faces 'mammoth' challenge
• Northern Powerhouse at 10: What has changed since 2014?

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"We have had well over £2bn of direct Government support which has unlocked many more billions in private investment creating thousands of jobs helping us increase employment by 5.4 per cent across this area since 2017.

"For years we were forgotten and taken for granted under Labour and now for the first time under Conservative leadership we are front and centre of the agenda and growing faster than we have in decades.

"Say what you like about Levelling Up, but it has worked in Teesside, Darlington, and Hartlepool and local people can see real positive progress right across our region."