Nothing More Than a Revolution in Urban and Regional Policy Will Do
As today’s Budget approached it was almost inevitable that the Liam Byrne letter from 2010 got an airing from the increasingly desperate Conservative Party chair Greg Hands, suggesting that the public finances are in safer hands with the Tories.
Hands knows full well that Byrne’s note was a gag, one that has now become a tradition among outgoing Treasury secretaries that was started by Tory Reginal Maudling back in 1964, who left a note for his successor Jim Callaghan that said, “Good luck, old cock…sorry to leave it in such a mess.”
As with Byrne’s message to his own successor David Laws, it was an obvious in-joke, but one with which Hands and his Tory colleagues have made much political hay with for more than a decade. It’s pretty tiresome, but then right now, they haven’t got much else to go with.
But just for clarity, our country’s debt is now north of two trillion pounds and counting, more than double what it was in 2010 despite many pledges to reduce it, and at the same time, the country is going backwards. Can anyone explain to me where all of this money has gone, because we certainly have very little to show for it. And before anyone says COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, this has been an ongoing process since 2010.
By the time that you read this, Jeremy Hunt will be preparing to deliver what is his first Budget, and from what I’ve managed to pick up in the run up, it’ll be nothing more than the usual Whitehall tinkering despite boosterist claims to the contrary.
Well, the time for tinkering is over. It achieves nothing and there is no longevity in such an approach. It’s simply unsustainable. We need nothing less than a revolution in urban and regional policy, and it needs to start yesterday and with long-term commitments. And it needs to be driven by localities.
When the UK2070 Commission – chaired by Lord Kerslake – reported in 2020 it found that the UK is the “most unequal large country in the developed world”, with Kerslake adding that if the government was serious about addressing regional inequalities, it needed to “go big or go home.” And that is basically where we’re at right now.
But what would that look like, and particularly here in North Staffordshire where inequalities are at their most acute?
The most important thing would be to build an economy that works for people and is focused on ending poverty, otherwise what is the point? This will mean ensuring strong local government – in a more appropriate form – delivering strong local services, with the tools – i.e. powers and resources – to genuinely empower local communities to rebuild their particular places.
It would mean enabling the creation of a properly managed, clean and efficient public transport system that is fit for the 21st Century – London-style but bespoke to North Staffordshire – and with a long-term financial model to ensure it will function.
It will mean investing in our area’s most important assets – its people – ensuring that they can become fitter, healthier and happier, and can play an important role in building an economy that works for them, rather than treat them as a chattel.
And it will mean tackling the Potteries Heritage Emergency, one of the most highly visible symptoms of a weak local economy, which ultimately stems from poor urban and regional policy.
In other words it needs to be local, and be about people and place.
All of this will only be achieved with a change in mindset both here in North Staffordshire and from the government, whoever may be running the show moving forward. And they both must place local communities at the forefront of things in order to get the right answers.
For far too long, Whitehall has simply tinkered around the edges when it comes to dealing with regional inequalities, rearranging deckchairs and reinventing the wheel to give the impression of doing something. And this is due to its natural tendency to centralise, and hoard power and resources.
Eventually all political parties will need to learn that to retain power, they will need to give it away.
DP
13th March 2023