Here’s what the government’s levelling up agenda could mean for the Horsham district

Last week Secretary of State Michael Gove unveiled the government’s levelling up strategy, but what does it include and how will it benefit West Sussex?
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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.

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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.

Michael Gove unveiled the government's White Paper on levelling up last week (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)Michael Gove unveiled the government's White Paper on levelling up last week (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Michael Gove unveiled the government's White Paper on levelling up last week (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

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.

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“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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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“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.”

‘Hard to see money coming Horsham’s way’

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Horsham district councillor John Milne said: “As Lib Dems, we support the ambition of closing the north-south divide.

“But many of the measures suggested in the government White Paper seem more focussed on winning votes in Tory marginals, rather than actually solving the problem.

“When you dig into Boris’s levelling up agenda, there’s not much that can be described as ‘new money’. Mostly it consists of old schemes rebranded under the levelling up label. That even goes for the name of new Department of Levelling Up itself – in fact this is the old Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government in disguise.

“Just like magic, everything the new ministry does will now be labelled ‘levelling up’.

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“It’s hard to see that any new funding will come Horsham’s way, or certainly not enough to make a difference. But what we will notice is that a big slice of our existing funding is going to be taken away.

“As is spelled out in the latest HDC budget, we’re waiting to see the impact of the government’s Fair Funding Review on business rates, which will transfer income away from the South East to areas of relative deprivation. It means a smaller share of the pot for Horsham and a permanent cut in our budget.

“If we’re lucky we might see a small fraction of the £3 billion or so that’s promised nationally for bus services.

“But it won’t come near replacing the £300,000 that was cut from local bus services as recently as 2019.

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“As Lib Dems we don’t disagree that parts of the country are in desperate need of new investment. But after a decade of relentless cuts in local authority budgets, losing funding on this kind of scale is going to hurt our ability to maintain Horsham services.

“This isn’t levelling up - it’s levelling down.”

However Conservatives at HDC struck a more optimistic tone.

Jonathan Chowen, leader at Horsham District Council, believes the council along with other district and boroughs are the embodiment of the levelling up agenda as they are close enough to communities to understand them and large enough to bring about positive change,

He added: “Our council working hard with councillors and council officers have an excellent record of providing strong, visible local leadership. We showed this most recently during the pandemic.

“We don’t hold all the levers but we can lead in levelling up on housing where we need it most, employment and achieving net zero.

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“But the Government’s levelling up allows us to continue to build on our council’s successes and plan for an even better future for our residents.”

James Wright, cabinet member for environment and rural affairs, said: “The pandemic has seen a huge shift too flexible or remote working, which should be encouraged as it drives higher wages outside of urban centres, by removing the requirement to being in the office every day.

“One area that rural Horsham district does lag behind is access to broadband, that is why I’m encouraged to see the Government made 5G Gigabit internet a priority for West Sussex, this will supersede the need for physical connections and instead provide high speed internet across the airways. “Our districts rural villages and hamlets will also benefit from is increased investment in policing. Rural crime has grown in recent years, in response in 2020 Sussex Police established a Rural Crime team, this team has been a great success and additional investment in Sussex Police will have benefits across our district.

“In addition to levelling up we are already receiving substantial investment in the area, especially with increased connectivity, the Arundel Bypass will unlock transport from East to West and reduce traffic in Storrington and Pulborough. I’m encouraged by the Government’s commitment to both our cities, towns and rural areas and look forward to seeing how the levelling up strategy evolves.

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Christian Mitchell, cabinet member for Horsham town, added: “I’m unashamedly ambitious for Horsham. I want our district - with Horsham Town at its heart - to continue to be a great place to live and work, with a quality of life that is second to none.

“We are justly proud in our town and the public realm – and we always have been as a council with our historic and beautiful Carfax that won awards with in our investment a generation ago.

“That is why I am pleased that the Government places restoring pride in our towns and cities at the core of levelling up because we can further build on all that is great in Horsham.

“As a council we are investing in our public realm with works on West Way to Forum Walk to commence in the next few months.

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“We have invested as a council in our town centre and market towns by pushing hard and working with local traders to ‘buy local’ and help new traders through the ‘Pop Up Shop’ in the run up to Christmas.

“The opening last week of the Backbridge Lane Community Hall is another example of how we are ensuring as a council that all our communities have access to the very best faculties and our ongoing investment in our communities.

“The Government is to further commit to building more affordable social housing and this is something as a council we are doing through our council’s affordable housing company.

“The Government’s heavy focus on development of brownfield sites is appertain as part of our local plan review as we address sustainability, including water neutrality, meaning that we must first look at such brownfield sites.

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“We can draw a halt to ruinously high housing targets that led to the concreting over the best asset of why people wish to live in our district – our beautiful countryside. As a council we are looking at sites in the town when brownfield sites can open up and where we need them most.

“This is an exciting time for us all in local Government to shape our district for the new challenges ahead. The Government’s emphasis on a bottom-up, flexible and non-prescriptive approach is an environment that allows us foster the economic patterns around Horsham town and the villages and invest in our communities for work and leisure.”

‘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.

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“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.

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“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.

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“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.”

‘Our area needs investment’

Horsham MP Jeremy Quin said: “Our area needs investment - Bohunt School and two new primaries and upgrades to doctors’ surgeries are good starts but enhanced railway provision and new health facilities to meet the needs of the local population are a core focus.

“Levelling up will make the country as a whole work better. Investment in Crawley which has been hit especially hard by Covid, and the coast, helps Horsham.

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“We want a country in which there are greater opportunities across the UK - an economy which reduces the magnetic pull of London which drives intense demand for services and more housing in our area through building a broader based national prosperity.”

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.

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“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.”