My Lords, levelling up is at the heart of the Government’s agenda to boost economic growth and build back better after the pandemic. It was at the centre of the manifesto on which the Government promised to deliver for the people of the United Kingdom. The levelling-up White Paper was published in February 2022. The United Kingdom is one of the greatest countries in the world but not everyone shares its success. As the levelling-up White Paper set out, we know that where people live unfairly affects their chances of getting on in life. Only through improving social and economic opportunities across the country can we rebalance the economy and achieve maximum growth. Safer streets, pride in place and more empowered communities can help drive local growth, investment and a more innovative economy. The Government are committed to reversing this unfairness and levelling up the UK by boosting growth and spreading opportunity more equally across the country.
The levelling-up White Paper set 12 levelling-up missions to anchor ambition and provide clarity over the objectives of public policy for the next decade. Delivering on these missions will improve people’s lives by improving living standards, spreading opportunities, enhancing local economic growth, restoring local pride, spreading opportunity and empowering local leaders across this country. Missions will also serve as an anchor for the expectations and plans of the private sector and civil society. This stability and consistency of policy aims to unleash innovation, investment and collaboration with the private sector and civil society.
Many of the powers in the Bill are enabling measures to help level up and deliver the missions in a way which reflects the characteristics of different areas. Missions are intended to anchor government policy and the decision-making necessary to level up the United Kingdom. However, missions should not be set in stone. As the economy adapts, so too will the missions to reflect the changing environment and lessons learned from past interventions. The Bill sets out that any changes to missions should be fully and transparently explained and justified when they occur.
We begin our first debate in Committee with Amendment 1, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock. I thank her for making it clear, as I would have made it clear, that this is a complex Bill. Everything she said about levelling up is correct: it will mean a lot of things to a lot of people, and it is about people and places.
I begin by assuring noble Lords that by setting out the missions to level up the United Kingdom the Government are identifying their priorities for reducing significant geographical disparities within the United Kingdom. As I have said, the White Paper explicitly sets out parameters for the agenda through the six capitals, four pillars and 12 missions. There is no denying that levelling up encompasses a broad and ambitious set of objectives. The Government’s focus now is on making levelling up a reality for people and places across the United Kingdom through funding, place-based policy and devolution to local leaders. We recognise that there is much more to do, but we are making progress.
The noble Baroness, Lady Lister, asked whether it is about bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. It is; when you talk about education, skills, good jobs and the provision of those things, that is about addressing the gap. If children live in homes where their carers or parents have good jobs, they will not be as poor as children who live in homes with no jobs. It is about addressing all those gaps.
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We have announced devolution dealswith places across England. When all the deals signed last year come into effect, more than half of England’s population will be covered by a mayoral devolution deal, giving places more power to shape their own destinies.
We have confirmed two new green freeports in Scotland, building on the progress of the eight freeports already open for business in England. Freeports are expected to generate millions of pounds in investment and, as importantly, thousands of highly skilled jobs, boosting local economies and benefitting the whole of the UK.
We announced more than £2 billion of investment for 111 places across the UK from round 2 of the levelling-up fund, helping to create better jobs and spread opportunity right across the country. Two-thirds of all levelling-up funding is going to the most deprived areas of the country, across both rounds. I can tell noble Lords that, out of the £3.7 billion allocated in the UK, per capita Wales is at the top with £106, the north-east and north-west are both at £79, and the east Midlands is at £78. Those are not considered to be areas which do not need our help levelling up.
Our specific objective through this part of the Bill is to ensure that the Government set clear, long-term objectives for levelling up, that are transparent, and that they are held to account for their progress on these. That is the important thing: it will be Parliament which challenges whether we are delivering. It will have a review, it will look at the outcomes, and it will challenge whether this Government and successive Governments are delivering on the Bill.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, brought up issues with the bidding process, particularly for levelling-up funds. We understand that. I think I have said more than once at this Dispatch Box that we are looking at a better way of funding. However, that is quite difficult, because if we spread it around the whole country it will not be enough. We need to look at how we fund for the future, and we are actively doing that.
As for the challenges at this time for education and the NHS particularly, the Bill is not going to solve everything; it cannot solve everything. This Government and any successive Governments are always going to have challenges. We are not saying that this will deal with every challenge that comes across any Government’s desk, but it will help to ensure that the people of this country have the opportunities we think they should to be the same as anybody else in the country and to be as rich and successful as the next person—particularly if they live in one of the areas of the country which is not delivering as much as we would like.
Through the Bill we are placing an obligation on future Governments to state publicly and before Parliament whether they will proceed with existing
missions or establish revised missions, and to report annually on their progress in delivering against those missions. As I said, Parliament will do the scrutiny and agree to the changes in any missions. That is the important place for it to be—not on the face of the Bill where, because it is in legislation, it cannot be changed very easily. I hope that I have given enough reassurances to the Committee, and I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.