Levelling up agenda ‘must not neglect areas like Chichester district’

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.”

Chichester reaction

Opposition parties at Chichester District Council have weighed in on proposals contained in the White Paper.

Although Chichester’s Lib Dems welcome the government’s recognition of the importance of reducing regional inequalities they say the White Paper ‘fails to back the vision with money or powers and offers nothing to our area’.

They believe the 12 missions lack clarity and substance and suggest the entire levelling up agenda is missing ‘credible new resourcing’ with proposed funding ‘clearly insufficient to make a noticeable difference’.

The Lib Dems are calling on regional and local government to be given real power to address the problems holding them back and ensure funding decisions are made locally.

Chichester was placed in level three, the lowest, for the levelling up fund, which provides money for regeneration projects, something that could have been ideal for the Southern Gateway scheme, meaning there was ‘very little hope of receiving any substantial grants’.

Adrian Moss, the council’s Lib Dem group leader, said: Adrian Moss, Lib Dem leader said: “To enable Chichester to benefit from the levelling up fund we needed an ‘oven ready’ regeneration project and the likelihood of a level three council gaining the grant was very low. Interestingly other Councils in Sussex, with very small Tory majorities for the local MP, were in level one and managed to gain substantial sums not available to Chichester.”

And Kate O’Kelly, Lib Dem county councillor for Midhurst, pointed out how the UK Shared Prosperity Fund excludes West Sussex from phase one of funding for 2022. She added: “I can see very little in the White Paper that will benefit the people of our area.”

Lib Dem district councillor Jonathan Brown added: ““Levelling up must mean more money for the poorer parts of the UK, but that doesn’t mean the Government should neglect areas like Chichester, not least because we have areas of real deprivation and acute infrastructure challenges including roads, wastewater treatment and access to GPs, of our own.

“And funding is not enough: without more powers too – without making communities responsible for their own future, the meagre resources the government is actually preparing to distribute will be wasted.

“Again, this can be solved by a genuine commitment to opening up politics and empowering local government, local communities and individual citizens instead of treating them like electoral nodding-donkeys to be herded into line.”

Green city, district and county councillor Sarah Sharp suggested creating new elected mayors and unitary authorities had ‘little directly to do with levelling up’, adding: “Instead, to let communities flourish, you must first engage and speak to them and really listen to their needs.”

She questioned why climate change is not one of the 12 missions, why there is no mention of retrofitting homes and why renewable fuels are not a major priority.

Ms Sharp also pointed out the huge discrepancy between money spent on roads (£27bn) and active travel (£2bn), with bus support halved.

She believes that climate change ‘should not play second fiddle to economic growth’ and suggests without proper investment the area will continue to be car dependent and largely reliant on fossil fuels.

She added: “Even if we do seem, on the outside, to be a prosperous area, we have communities with high levels of need that mustn’t get forgotten. We don’t want to be sidelined.”

Local Alliance district councillors Donna and Tim Johnson believe the theory behind levelling up is commendable but does not address inequalities within the regions.

While Sussex performs well from a skills perspective, they say under 35s have been greatly impacted by furlough and loss of jobs since Covid.

They suggest all regions need to thrive and be able to adapt post Covid ‘but it appears that the South East will not be able to fully take advantage of funding the government has made available for levelling up’.

They added: “We should be looking to improve living standards across the country, helping all regions to reach their potential and ensuring improved job opportunities everywhere, including the South East.

“However, one possible gain for the South East could be the building of more affordable housing in the Midlands and the North, given our District’s issue with land availability.

“Overall, the White Paper has good intentions, but the South East is crucial to the economy, and a lack of investment will risk hampering our region’s recovery and growth, whereas investment in our region will benefit everyone.”

In a statement the Chichester Constituency Labour Party said: “The government, in its levelling up White Paper, is right to point to the unequal distribution of opportunity, wellbeing and wealth across the UK, this has a negative impact on us all.

“These inequalities will not be solved by the superficial assessment and unsustainable solutions presented in the White Paper.

“The South East is characterised in the paper as a region with an over-concentration of economic growth driven by higher productivity.

This hides the reality of life for many who live in Chichester and environs. Chichester Labour is under no illusions that there are deep-seated economic problems that need to be addressed in the South East.

“The lack of genuinely affordable and sustainably fit for purpose housing is not just a housing crisis, but a wages crisis. Incomes have not kept pace with the rising cost of living under subsequent Conservative governments. 2019 data shows that within Chichester constituency 4,035 households were defined as fuel poor, a number that will only grow given the current fuel crisis.

“Schools funding has been cut leading to families making difficult choices, particularly when it comes to meeting the needs of children with complex needs. Services like CAMHS have faced similar cuts, leading to traumatic situations where children only qualify for help if they have reached an extreme level of need.

“The government’s White Paper fails to address the high cost of elderly and childcare in the South East, and the particular impact this has on women’s ability to contribute to growth and productivity through paid work.

“Chichester Labour supports devolution, but power must be devolved to be representative. Chichester District Council previously committed to holding a Citizens’ Assembly, since abandoning the plan. Without representative devolution equality will not be embedded in levelling up decision-making and the overall project will fail.

“The White Paper refers to increased numbers of holidays abroad as negatively impacting coastal communities, it would be easier to convince people to spend money visiting our coastal areas if they knew that sewage was not being discharged into our waters.

“Chichester Labour is very concerned by the implications of the following quote ‘Indeed, by extending opportunity across the UK we can relieve pressures on public services, housing and green fields in the South East..

“Residents of Chichester and surroundings are deeply passionate about where we live, from the beautiful rolling hills to the north, across our strong and historic city, to the spectacular sunsets over the sea in the south.

“We want opportunities, access to services, decent housing and productive green fields that benefit all Chichester and district residents here, where we have chosen to live and work.”

‘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.”

Government ‘has clear strategy’

Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith, who represents Petworth, 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.”