Latest News

Ahead of the publication of the long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper, the Institute of Economic Development (IED) is sharing new insight which sets out the views of members on what is required from the UK government’s flagship policy.

Levelling Up: pre-White Paper perspectives from economic development professionals is a collection of thought leadership articles around what could be undertaken in respect of themes such as cities, towns, coastal settlements, community-led levelling up, widening opportunity and social capital, and structures. It then arrives at a series of conclusions drawn mostly from local authority members writing in a personal capacity.

IED Executive Director Nigel Wilcock, who led the development of the paper, said it was not an “attempt to prioritise the potential solutions” around Levelling Up. Instead, its main purpose was to collate and share a “huge body of expertise often based on the lessons learned from the past – both in the UK and more widely” – from a cross-section of its membership.

“It is our intention that each short chapter may offer something relevant to members (and beyond) and will stimulate further debate and thinking,” he explained. “These have tended to address themes from a slightly more spatial perspective than is expected in the White Paper, and of course once that White Paper has been published and considered, the IED will be responding more formally to the consultation. There are some commonalties within chapters but, remarkably, very few contradictory views.”

Levelling Up: pre-White Paper perspectives from economic development professionals goes on to highlight a number of “recurring themes”:

• Levelling Up and economic development is about people and communities, yet they are frequently left out of the narrative. Community confidence, aspiration, skills and opportunity need to be at the centre of everything that is considered.
• Trickle-down economics has not worked. Economic growth in the UK over the recent past has generally delivered benefits for a few whilst barely touching many. Against a backdrop of the Levelling Up agenda, much of the work undertaken can therefore be considered to have failed.
• The failure of the various initiatives is partly because the approach was never designed to address inequalities – but also partly because the challenges relating to Levelling Up involve multiple issues covered by several different government departments and organisations. There is a need for far more cross-initiative working.
• Attempting to work cross-departmentally within government is nirvana – often desired and seldom achieved. Considering interlocking issues at a local level is, however, more achievable and suggests that devolution should be deepened and accelerated.
• The current approach to devolution is flawed – with local actors now responsible for administering the same Westminster funds with the same rules as before it is unsurprising that the outcomes achieved remain the same. 
• Devolution can better align local economic development with local needs and local governance. Such a model can address policy silos and should be aligned with the requirement to make economic development a statutory function.
• Ensuring that economic development is a statutory function can then make certain that the delivery of economic development initiatives takes place against the backdrop of greater certainty with a focus on the long term. 
• There is no need for disheartenment from some of the initiatives failing – failure is a mechanism for refinement, but this is not recognised sufficiently within public sector approaches.