The leader of Durham county council, Amanda Hopgood, wonders how a historic castle in Kent can qualify for levelling up funds, but a deprived area of County Durham does not (Report, 3 April). In the 1980s and 90s, when I was involved, as Gateshead council’s chair of housing, in “beauty contest” bids to the then Tory governments, I came to the conclusion that bids were assessed not so much on the published criteria but on a “possible photo opportunity” index. So there’s the answer: being seen at a Kent castle easily trumps traipsing up to a deprived area of County Durham. Allocating limited funds in this way is a sure sign that what matters is not levelling up, but pretending to.
Paul Tinnion
Whickham, Tyne and Wear
• Well done to the Guardian for revealing the electoral antics wrapped underneath a banner of “levelling up”, and related policy fictions. Here in sunny Whitstable, our beachside tennis courts are being upgraded with the help of £14,000 from the “shared prosperity fund” – one of the main policy vehicles for allegedly “levelling up” the poorest parts of the country. Meanwhile, just up the road, the upgrade to our Brenley Corner roundabout is touted as part of “Network North”, a confection for which “spurious” is far too weak a word.
For politicians unfamiliar with England’s geography, you’ll find both places in one of the most prosperous areas of the south-east. I’m not sure any resident should spurn such a bounty, but whether or not it comes our way, please stop this government from giving the impression that it’s anything other than electoral business as usual where the needs of the north of England are concerned.
Jonathan Hollow
Whitstable, Kent
• I am astonished that the Conservative party has for so long sustained the illusion that there was any substance behind levelling up (No progress made on half of UK government’s levelling-up targets, 1 April). This is a party with a longstanding belief that hierarchies in all areas of life are natural, inevitable and in fact desirable. This belief applies just as much to our nation’s deeply divided geography as it does to our structures of power and influence. Like the other fictions of the party’s overcrowded and confused imagination, it will be quietly forgotten to become yet another story of disillusionment.
Toby Milner-Gulland
London
• Any government that is committed to levelling up needs to do three things. First, it needs to develop and deliver a proper, geographically wide-ranging industrial policy; second, it needs to increase the amount of capital available in absolute terms to poorer areas; and third, it needs to increase the relative amount of capital available. Without an increase in absolute capital there can be no overall uplift, while the disparity between richer and poorer areas will not only remain but continue to grow without a significant increase in relative availability. Governments having made these strategic commitments then need to trust the communities in which they are investing to deliver good and sustainable outcomes – on this Lord Heseltine is correct.
Andrew Lightbown
Canon residentiary, Newport Cathedral
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