Whether Tory-style levelling up is the right fix remains to be tested, if, indeed, it is ever tried
”. Together with “get Brexit done”, the phrase dominated the Conservative Party’s rhetoric at the general election in 2019 and is now bureaucratically enshrined in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. On February 2nd Boris Johnson’s government is expected to publish a white paper containing details of its plans for levelling up. Critics call it conveniently timed to divert attention from civil service and policeheld in Downing Street during coronavirus lockdowns.
In broad terms, levelling up is best understood as a right-of-centre method of reducing inequalities without redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor, as is more usually associated with the left. Mr Johnson’s predecessor as prime minister, the hapless Theresa May, expressed it thus: “Socialism is about levelling down. Conservatism is about levelling up. Socialists believe that, if everyone cannot have something, no one shall. Conservatives reject that.
So far, the focus has been on improving internet connectivity and transport links, principally railways, as the best ways to stimulate poorer regional economies, “to revolutionise our patterns of work and provide a tail wind for levelling up”, according to the prime minister. Yet these policies have been characterised by indecisiveness and intellectual confusion.
With its white paper, however, Mr Johnson’s government hopes to grasp the nettle. It is certainly right to try, becausehave blighted Britain for too long. Male life expectancy in Glasgow is still a decade lower than in central London; on some measures, the gap between the output of the poorest and richest parts of Britain is higher than in any other OECD country. As usual, Mr Johnson has seized on the right subject. . Time is running out.
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