Report highlights “glacial” pace of implementing Levelling Up agenda
The Government's Levelling Up agenda has been progressing at a "glacial" pace, and on many metrics, "the UK as a whole has gone into reverse", a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has claimed.
The IFS report looked back on the last five years of the Conservative government's efforts to implement its flagship policy, finding that the slow pace of change "speaks to the challenges of shifting deep-seated geographic inequalities, and the importance of a long-term strategy with consistent delivery if progress is to be made".
The report analysed 12 different missions set out in the Government's Levelling Up White Paper, which included improving living standards, public transport, schooling, and life expectancy.
It also set out an aim to provide every part of England that wants one "with a devolution deal with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution and a simplified, long-term funding settlement".
However, the report said: "Overall, progress towards levelling up has been glacial – and, on many metrics, the UK as a whole has gone into reverse."
It added: "The share of pupils in England meeting the expected standards at the end of primary school has fallen from 65% in 2018–19 to 60% in June 2023.
"The total number of further education and skills courses completed fell by 14%, driven by a more than 20% fall in the lowest-skilled areas."
The report also noted that average life satisfaction is the lowest it has been since 2012 and highlighted a 21-percentage-point gap in the average employment rate between the best- and worst-performing tenth of local authorities – "the widest it has been since at least 2005".
The report noted the pressures that the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine placed on the Levelling Up agenda.
However, it did underline some successes, which included an increase in 5G coverage across the UK and an increase in 'pride in one's area' between 2019 and 2021, which included a 4-percentage-point rise in the North West, where pride in place was lowest.
Adam Carey
