Governments are famous for attempts to encapsulate their strategies into punchy soundbites.
We all remember aphorisms such as: ‘Back to Basics’, the ‘Big Society’, and who can forget ‘Strong and Stable’?
As the Prime Minister gives yet another big speech scrabbling to define ‘levelling up’, I fear it is already another hollow phrase destined to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
As an apprentice bricklayer, I spent my formative years learning all about levelling things up.
My training taught me that you cannot level something up by equally adding to higher areas, without compensating for the parts that were lower to start with.
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It’s a lesson Johnson would do well to learn.
Ours is the most centralised democracy in the OECD and the most unbalanced economy in Europe.
Nowhere needs to address regional disparities more than we do.
But what we’ve seen so far are superficial beauty contests, like the Levelling Up Fund, which makes areas in desperate need of investment fight each other for crumbs off the table.
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It doesn’t factor in deprivation and lets Tory MPs sponsor pet projects in their own back yards – and we all saw how that went with the Towns Fund.
If the government was serious about levelling up, then it would look closely at reforming the way projects are funded.
The current Treasury Green Book makes it easier for those in the South to access funding than ones in the North.
It’s a flawed methodology that is long past its sell-by date.
For many Tories, their only experience of spirit levels, are the ceremonial ones used at Masonic gatherings.
If levelling up is to be a serious proposition, they cannot continue to embed the status quo.
Johnson, himself a former mayor, needs to stick to his promise to hand more decision-making powers and funding to local areas to enable them to shape their own destinies.
The Prime Minister should stick to that promise.
After all, there’s a first time for everything!
