Here’s what the government’s levelling up agenda could mean for Adur and Worthing

The White Paper, a policy document setting out proposals for future legislation, outlines ‘twelve bold national missions’ to shift government focus and resources to Britain’s ‘forgotten communities’ between now and 2030.

The first mission for example states the aim to see pay, employment and productivity grow everywhere and the disparities between the best and worst performing areas narrow.

Others include bringing the rest of the country’s local public transport systems much closer to the standard of London’s, eliminating illiteracy and innumeracy in primary school leavers, halving the number of poor quality rental homes, decreasing serious crime in the most blighted areas and rejuvenating the most run-down town centres and communities.

Meanwhile every part of England getting a ‘London-style’ devolution deal if they wish to.

Mr Gove said: “Not everyone shares equally in the UK’s success. For decades, too many communities have been overlooked and undervalued. As some areas have flourished, others have been left in a cycle of decline. The UK has been like a jet firing on only one engine.

“Levelling up and this White Paper is about ending this historic injustice and calling time on the postcode lottery.

“This will not be an easy task, and it won’t happen overnight, but our 12 new national levelling up missions will drive real change in towns and cities across the UK, so that where you live will no longer determine how far you can go.”

Funding under the umbrella of levelling up has previously been announced for projects in Bognor Regis, Crawley, Eastbourne, Hastings, Hove, Littlehampton, Newhaven and Seaford.

The White Paper also highlights planned investment to the A27 at both Arundel and Lewes, improvements to the Brighton Main Line, an upgraded Gatwick Airport railway station, a new life sciences building at the University of Sussex, a new hospital for Eastbourne and a regional centre for teaching, trauma and tertiary care at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

New announcements included East Sussex being one of 55 education investment areas where school outcomes are ‘currently weakest’ and is line to benefit from intensive investment and support from the Department for Education.

Meanwhile Eastbourne and Brighton & Hove are two of 68 new areas which will be supported by the High Streets Task Force.

While Greater London and the areas around the capital are among the most prosperous parts of the country, the picture is more complex than a north-south divide.

Even in West Sussex there are deprived areas desperately in need of investment.

The county must not suffer at the expense of other areas.

The White Paper comes as our local authorities have been starved of funding since 2010, forcing them to make cuts and savings across the board, while since 2015 council tax bills have gone up year after year.

Meanwhile with many households already struggling financially, the country faces a cost of living crisis as inflation is increasing, energy bills are going up and a National Insurance rise is on the way.

County councillors respond

Kirsty Lord, Lib Dem opposition group leader at County Hall, said: “The people of West Sussex are facing a cost of living crisis and Tory tax hikes are just months away.

“Meanwhile West Sussex County Council is facing a shortfall of some £25m in 2023. Both the residents and the council needed to see detailed support being offered now.

“Instead we were given a White Paper containing information seemingly culled from Wikipedia and vague promises of improvement elsewhere by 2030.

“Our MPs – who include several ministers and the Prime Minister’s latest right hand man – now need to focus less on their ambitions in Westminster and more on the people who elected them.

“West Sussex residents need to see them standing up for this county and making the case for investment here not elsewhere.”

But Paul Marshall, leader of WSCC, welcomed the White Paper as it ‘provides a clearer framework of what levelling up means and along with the steps and opportunities’.

He added: “This is a positive step. As the Conservative leader I, along with colleagues, will be reviewing the White Paper, nearly 400 pages.

“I want to ensure that we take every opportunity to deliver the best outcomes for our residents and businesses in this county. I welcome the opportunity to explore those outcomes that comes with devolution.”

Caroline Baxter, leader of the Labour group, described how settlement funding for the county had been slashed even since 2018 dwarfing any successful bids to the towns fund and levelling up fund.

She said: “While West Sussex residents and our local economies brace themselves from the highest taxes and inflation levels seen in decades, this does little to reassure them that local authorities will be able to deliver services and protect our communities.”

She added: “West Sussex needs funding to improve and deliver struggling services for children and families, public health, accessible transport links, climate, and environmental changes and to protect and regenerate our culture, arts and communities.”

‘A lot in White Paper to embrace’

Kevin Jenkins, Conservative leader of Worthing Borough Council, said: “I believe that there is a lot in the Governments levelling up White Paper to embrace and large parts of it already form a central component to our ambition here is Worthing.

“We have been working hard to challenge, change and address ingrained and persistent disparities and I welcome the Secretary of States acknowledgement in the House of Commons, that Worthing, as in common with a number of coastal towns have pockets of significant deprivation and could benefit even further from the Governments levelling up agenda.

“The council has shown that by targeting resources effectively and investing in our partnerships, we now have projects literally ‘on the ground’ – work underway on a net zero business park; the installation of a network of gigabit fibre; an integrated health centre; and a programme to re-imagine our public realm. Taking the next step toward levelling up demands that we make further improvements to our local infrastructure and invest in our cultural and heritage assets. The opportunity is highlighted by a series of ‘shovel ready’ projects - to re-invent our seafront Lido - to ‘light up’ our Museum and Art Gallery - and to repair and re-connect the ‘missing pieces’ of our townscape.

“In Worthing we have five wards identified as being in the ten per cent most deprived in the nation with respect to crime, employment, health and wellbeing, skills and training.

“These wards are also amongst the 20 percent most deprived in the nation around measures such as child poverty, wellbeing and income deprivation affecting older people.

“Therefore the Governments focus on these areas of challenge supports the work that we have already commissioned the council to do to support those most in need in our communities.

“Working with local partners, businesses and schools we are striving to help drive an improvement in educational standards, increasing the number of people achieving degree or higher qualifications or accessing high-quality skills training. We are one of the first towns in the South to have gigabit-capable broadband installed across the town, this will help promote increased productivity and employment opportunities for everyone.

“The designation of Worthing as a Local Lead Authority for overseeing the Shared Prosperity Fund is also welcomed and is further confirmation of our vital leadership role in bringing together local partners and we look forward to actively shaping this with government.

“In all, whilst we await greater detail, I feel there is opportunity in this white paper for our town, that if approached positively, will help address inequalities, not just for those in the North of England, but also in coastal towns such as here in Worthing.”

But Worthing’s Labour group felt the White Paper on levelling up ‘delivers very few fresh initiatives and is little more than a rehash of old promises with no new money to back them up’ at a time ‘when radical action is required to challenge deep seated and ever increasing inequality’.

Being a seaside town, the party welcomes the prospect of spreading investment widely, but ‘giving every part of the country the power to shape its own destiny sounds great but if they are starved of the cash to achieve what they know needs to be done then they are just empty words’.

Beccy Cooper, leader of the Worthing Labour Group, said: “Worthing has its own identity, with its own particular opportunities and challenges. In order to tackle these, resources and responsibilities need to be properly devolved to local decision making bodies. The Government’s levelling up paper states that this is a good idea, but as per usual, there is no actual commitment to stable local funding and we still need to jump through national hoops to secure money our area needs to develop into the fair, thriving, green coastal town we know that it can and should be. 

“Real levelling up starts at a local level, working with and for our local residents. Understanding the needs of a community and ensuring that there are resources available to address these for the benefit of all.”

Emma Taylor, Labour’s shadow executive member for customer services, called for an urgent focus on eradicating poverty, with a huge disparity between local wages and the cost of housing in Worthing. She said they needed funding to invest in emergency and short-term accommodation schemes as well as long-term housing options that are controlled by the council to ensure they are high quality and affordable.

Given that leaky homes are placing many tenants in fuel stress and poverty, she believes investment in insulation and green technology would reduce bills, cut carbon emissions and create green jobs.

Meanwhile Helen Silman, shadow executive member for climate emergency and nature renewal, asked where the focus on the climate emergency was in the White Paper.

She said: “Climate justice is social justice and if the Government are serious about levelling up they need to put the climate emergency at the heart of every policy.”

She highlighted the work done by the citizens’ assembly, who asked for better information and education to be on hand and suggested the proposed climate emergency centre ‘will do just that’.

Meanwhile Hazel Thorpe, leader of the Lib Dem group, said: “We welcome the ambitious, aspirational levelling up agenda.

“But bearing in mind that the Government has the responsibility and direct control of Education, Skills, Health and Transport and the Treasury hold the purse strings, we are cautious about the delivery of the aims and policies due to lack of new funding and the short time span.

“West Sussex and Worthing in particular has its own poverty gaps as shown by the need for foodbanks, the Hear my Story project, which aims to help young people and the Christians against Poverty jobs club.

“Worthing needs to benefit from financial input into our Children and Adolescents Mental Health Service, our youth service, our social housing and in particular the Community Covenant, and crucially the Safer Street Fund to combat crime and anti- social behaviour.

“It needs to benefit from a slice of the £2.6bn UK Shared Prosperity Fund to empower our local leaders by direct funding on our identified priorities, be it potholes or reviving the High street and supporting local businesses.

“Worthing, the Teville Gate development, for example, would greatly benefit from a Community Covenant Approach, which would promote new agreements between Councils, public bodies, entrepreneurs and the community to empower communities to regenerate their area to suit their needs.”

‘Mish-mash of random policies’

Meanwhile over in Adur, the Labour group there says the White Paper identifies geographical inequality with a focus on the north-south divide and less on deprived coastal towns. They said: “Our coastal area has many deprived areas and its economy has flatlined for many years. Adur has poor housing prices to wages ratio and we desperately need to upskill our workforce so that people don’t have to leave this community to fulfil their potential.”

Given that in 2019 the expected standard for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 was at 62 per cent, they suggest it would be optimistic that West Sussex would get anywhere near the 90 per cent attainment in eight years’ time without significant extra investment in more teaching assistants, with no mention of extra funding for early years.

Labour also points out how Adur has not had any capital grants and questioned why the Conservative-controlled district council hadn’t put forward ‘ready baked’ proposals, with other nearby coastal communities such as Bognor Regis, Newhaven and Eastbourne making successful bids that reflected their geography.

They added: “Our town and village centres and their businesses need support. The council should be working with local people to draw up plans to put to the Government so that we do not become left behind communities. The need to level up is not only a national issue, it’s important here too.

“There doesn’t appear to be any new money announced, or at least it’s vague. It’s a rehashing of previously announced funding of which Adur received nothing.

“Pitting local authorities into competition with each other doesn’t really tackle core inequalities. It’s full of slogans, promises and wishful thinking. Freezing business rates isn’t enough. We need business rates and council tax reform.”

Councillor Gabe Crisp said: “Adur Green Party welcomes the Shared Prosperity Funding, which will go to our local council. However, there is no new money for housing in the South East. We urgently need homes for local families, young people and those on the housing waiting list.

“There is nothing for struggling people so it is not Levelling up in Adur. Adur Green party is calling for responsible development so new homes are matched with sufficient schools, hospitals, social care and sustainable transport schemes.

“The Levelling up agenda is a mish-mash of random policies with no proper details for implementation. Climate change and the Green New Deal are nowhere to be found. Overall this is a disappointing wasted opportunity for people in Adur. We need bold thinking to help those in need, to reduce congestion, pollution, over development and provide Green jobs for our young people to help us move on from the pandemic”

What do our MPs’ think?

Tim Loughton, East Worthing & Shoreham MP, said: “The levelling up White Paper is an ambitious blueprint for spreading investment, opportunity and skills around the UK rather than the historical concentration on London and the South East.

“This will inevitably mean that some of the most high profile examples of infrastructure investment will be concentrated in the North of England and beyond. However this must not be at the expense at some of the more deprived areas that we have in our part of the country and not least in some of the deprived wards within Adur and Worthing.

“As I have said repeatedly many coastal communities face unique challenges and underperform rural areas including educational achievement, and levelling up must also be about improving educational qualifications and skills, local environments and opportunities in those areas regardless of whether they be in the north or south, and that is the point I will be making to ministers.”

Worthing West MP Sir Peter Bottomley said he had spoken to the Prime Minister about including the South Coast in the benefits of levelling up, adding: “He rightly says that spreading opportunity and better lives around the country will reduce the pressures for overdevelopment in the South.

“Speaking in the House of Commons after minister Michael Gove announced how government will start transforming lives, I asked him to listen to our local council leaders. Specifically, I asked him to do more of what they request and to do less than what they want rejected, not the other way around.

“There are at least as many people on the South East and London as there are in the North who can gain if policy allows communities to improve themselves by their own efforts in partnership with Whitehall.”

Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith added: “The levelling up White Paper recognises that some parts of the United Kingdom do not share equally in our country’s success. Pockets of disadvantage may be found even in otherwise more prosperous communities. Rural poverty or some of our coastal communities for example.

“The Government has a clear strategy to tackle this, head on. Rural West Sussex, in my view, will certainly benefit from much of the investment that the Government is putting in place to ensure that everyone, everywhere, has an equal opportunity to flourish.

“Most tangibly, if levelling up can reverse the ‘southern tilt’ in our economy in the medium term, we may expect fewer homes to be required on green field land in West Sussex.

“Another way that our hamlets and villages scattered across the South Downs will feel the benefits of Levelling Up is through broadband improvements. Up to 68,000 rural homes and businesses across West Sussex will benefit from £112 million of investment which will secure lightning-fast gigabit-capable (that’s 1000mb/s) connections.

“Levelling up is also about to boosting funding for education, and commits to an extra £405m extra for mainstream schools in 2022/23. This is an increase of almost six per cent per pupil. This will provide extra support for students catch up from the pandemic and will help schools meet the mission of eliminating illiteracy and innumeracy.

“Further education provision in West Sussex will also benefit from Levelling Up. The already outstanding Chichester College Group, education teenagers and adults across the county, will become an Institute of Technology – gaining access to employer-led support which will ensure people from all backgrounds will have the opportunity to secure high-skilled and rewarding careers. This is in addition to the White Paper’s proposed investment of £3.8 billion to secure a Lifetime Skills Guarantee, meaning thousands of adults across West Sussex will have the opportunity to gain a new qualification for free.

“West Sussex is generally a very safe area to live, and we must be thankful for that. But occasionally, we need the support of our police. That is why I am pleased that 182 additional Police Officers have been recruited in Sussex as part of the Government’s plan to recruit 20,000 new police officers, whilst the county has benefitted from nearly £1 million of Safer Streets Funding focused on preventing neighbourhood crime.”

‘Nature demoted’ says countryside charity

Professor Dan Osborn, chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Sussex branch, believes the levelling up blueprint announced by Michael Gove has a ‘gaping hole at its heart that means it won’t deliver what it could have’. And this omission might mean the initiative is ‘doomed to failure’.

He said: “All our health and wealth comes from the resources that are found in the natural world. These resources are scarce because they all come from just one planet, Earth.

“So why is this natural capital omitted from the foundation list of what needs to be accounted for when levelling up?

“If we continue to omit nature from the way we make plans and decisions, and just base those plans and decisions on the old-fashioned economics that have got us into the mess we are in at present – with climate change and water supplies etc – then we will continue to take bites out of nature and nature will bite back harder and harder. So, a levelling up course correction is needed, and fast.”

Professor Osborn points to a belated minor mention of natural capital late on in the White Paper, suggesting ‘demoting nature looks like a choice and not a mistake’.

He added: “This is no way to deal with climate change or water issues and no way to plan for the future.

“Natural capital and the services like food and water we get from ecosystems is supposed to be part of the thinking of all government departments. Why? Because it will help make more sustainable decisions as part of the government commitment to the 25-year Environment Plan.

“The trouble is that all too often old-style economic factors dominate. Social matters – like supplying truly affordable homes for local people – and environmental matters – such as ensuring there is enough water for nature, people, farming and business – often seem not to feature in decision-making at all. Nature’s capital must be just as much part of decisions as other kinds of capital drawn on to investment in the future.

“Does any of this matter to Sussex? Well yes it does, because the Government department that is setting the levelling up agenda is the same one that determines housing numbers, will have oversight of what seem like the increasingly odd plans to expand Gatwick and that has the last word on planning applications and how much money developers pay towards our social and environmental infrastructure such as schools and enhanced biodiversity.

“And all of this downgrading of the natural world comes at a time when the new Environment Bill’s provisions to protect and enhance the environment face delays in being enacted and when hard-pressed local authorities seem to have no resources to implement them.

“As Mr Gove said when he launched the 25 year Environment Plan: ‘So, protecting and enhancing the environment …. is about more than respecting nature. It is critical if the next generation is to flourish, with abundant natural resources to draw on, that we look after our and their inheritance wisely’.

“Maybe, that same Mr Gove can correct the serious omission of nature from the foundations of his levelling up plan that his current department have just issued? We cannot on any basis have our environment deteriorate any further.”