On the eve of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester last week, Sunak announced his new ‘Levelling-up fund’, promising ‘investing in local communities’, especially ‘overlooked’ towns. Sunak didn’t see fit to comment on quite whom has been overlooking such towns, probably because a disproportionate number of them are in Conservative constituencies: 62% of the locations, compared to their significantly lower 54% of House of Commons seats held by the party.
Although the funding promises to address and improve highstreets and public transport, many view this as ‘pork-barrel’ politics, an insincere act of gesture politics to gain public approval and divert attention from less equitable policies. Just a few days after Sunak’s ‘Levelling-up’ announcements, the northern line of HS2 was scrapped, symbolic of the government’s wider failures, past and present, to sufficiently benefit and provide for the north of England. Labour Mayors criticised the closure in a joint statement claiming the government was leaving ‘swathes of the North with Victorian transport infrastructure that is unfit for purpose.’ Whilst business owners in the East Midlands claimed that the actions were equivalent to being ‘levelled-down’
This isn’t the first time Sunak has been criticised for is lack of awareness and insensitivities to issues of inequality in Britain, in August of last year he was filmed boasting to party supporters in Tunbridge Wells about diverting money away from ‘deprived Urban areas’. As Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Angela Rayner reminded the public of these comments made by the Prime Minister, when responding to the new policy announcements.
Sunak has also previously used past ‘levelling up’ funding to support his own wealthy rural constituency of Richmond, which all suggests a serious apathy towards the real implications of socio-economic disadvantages in the country, undermining his claims that new levelling up policies will help towns ‘politicians have always taken … for granted’ when choosing to focus money and attention on big cities.
However, in September a report by think tank the Institute for Government questioned governmental policies for economic equality, whilst Resolution Foundation notes how the lack of ‘seriousness’ with which Whitehall approaches the process of ‘levelling up’ has prevented serious, meaningful change under Conservative rule.
Although Sunak’s announcement presents large sums of money, and in principle has potential to aid towns significantly with the £20 million grants, the public cannot continue to be deceived by the superficiality of actual intent and must remain sceptical of Sunak’s government and policies. As the scrapping of HS2’s northern line shows, big money policies and media campaigns too often, in this and other Conservative governments, fail to actualise into concrete change. I’ll believe it when I see it.
“Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Leaving For His First PMQ’s” by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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Why I am sceptical of Rishi Sunak’s new ‘Levelling Up’ fund
On the eve of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester last week, Sunak announced his new ‘Levelling-up fund’, promising ‘investing in local communities’, especially ‘overlooked’ towns. Sunak didn’t see fit to comment on quite whom has been overlooking such towns, probably because a disproportionate number of them are in Conservative constituencies: 62% of the locations, compared to their significantly lower 54% of House of Commons seats held by the party.
Although the funding promises to address and improve highstreets and public transport, many view this as ‘pork-barrel’ politics, an insincere act of gesture politics to gain public approval and divert attention from less equitable policies. Just a few days after Sunak’s ‘Levelling-up’ announcements, the northern line of HS2 was scrapped, symbolic of the government’s wider failures, past and present, to sufficiently benefit and provide for the north of England. Labour Mayors criticised the closure in a joint statement claiming the government was leaving ‘swathes of the North with Victorian transport infrastructure that is unfit for purpose.’ Whilst business owners in the East Midlands claimed that the actions were equivalent to being ‘levelled-down’
This isn’t the first time Sunak has been criticised for is lack of awareness and insensitivities to issues of inequality in Britain, in August of last year he was filmed boasting to party supporters in Tunbridge Wells about diverting money away from ‘deprived Urban areas’. As Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Angela Rayner reminded the public of these comments made by the Prime Minister, when responding to the new policy announcements.
Sunak has also previously used past ‘levelling up’ funding to support his own wealthy rural constituency of Richmond, which all suggests a serious apathy towards the real implications of socio-economic disadvantages in the country, undermining his claims that new levelling up policies will help towns ‘politicians have always taken … for granted’ when choosing to focus money and attention on big cities.
However, in September a report by think tank the Institute for Government questioned governmental policies for economic equality, whilst Resolution Foundation notes how the lack of ‘seriousness’ with which Whitehall approaches the process of ‘levelling up’ has prevented serious, meaningful change under Conservative rule.
We’re all one shop away from making a difference
Although Sunak’s announcement presents large sums of money, and in principle has potential to aid towns significantly with the £20 million grants, the public cannot continue to be deceived by the superficiality of actual intent and must remain sceptical of Sunak’s government and policies. As the scrapping of HS2’s northern line shows, big money policies and media campaigns too often, in this and other Conservative governments, fail to actualise into concrete change. I’ll believe it when I see it.
“Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Leaving For His First PMQ’s” by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
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