The Government’s flagship policy of levelling up and closing the North/South divide has failed to benefit the North East, a new study has found.
The new working paper, published by Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School, argued that the North/South gap is widening, and that the North East is in danger of slipping further behind as economic and social conditions continue to deteriorate.
The Government allocated £4.8bn to the Levelling Up Fund (LUF) to be spent by 31 March 2025. However, according to evidence gathered for the working paper, it has spent less than 3% of it in 2021-2022 – only £107m in total.
In the North-East region, only 6% of the national allocation for LUF Round 1 was approved, totalling £100m.
Commenting on the findings, one of the report’s authors Professor Shutt said: ‘Despite the policy being a focal point of the Conservative party's 2019 election campaign, it is evident that Levelling Up has only just reached the stage of moving beyond a slogan.
‘The Truss administration must deliver desperately required policy coordination that targets those areas most in need and should continue to uphold the promise of the Johnson Government to the North-East region, but progress does not seem assured.’
The paper recommended a major review in 2023 and new actions to ensure the fulfilment of the levelling up promise within the region, including better central-local debate within the region and externally with Whitehall and Parliament about plans for levelling up.
