Levelling up: Nadine Dorries’s announcement is just window dressing

It sounds good, it looks good, but ultimately it means nothing, writes Chris Blackhurst

Culture secretary Nadine Dorries announced the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s new Manchester hub (PA)

They just don’t get it. Ministers have no clue as to what levelling up means.

Or, perhaps they do, and this is just yet another example of this government’s cynical predilection for empty-headed boosterism, of ministers falling over themselves to come up with more vacuous, self-promoting nonsense. Should they cease to be inspired they can always turn, of course, to their leader for lessons in churning out meaningless statements.

The latest to catch my eye was the announcement from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport that “hundreds of new jobs will be created in Manchester and the north-east”. Boasts the release from Nadine Dorries (yes, someone who requires no guidance in the art of saying something that turns out to be nothing): “The department has today announced the official opening of its new hub, accommodating up to 400 staff, in Marble Street in Manchester, creating a presence in the city.”

It burbles on: “The department is expanding its presence across the UK with staff based to be in Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Loughborough and Darlington. The Darlington Economic Campus, a new shared site in the north-east for DCMS, the Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Department for Education, will have almost 200 DCMS staff based there.”

So, for a moment, on reading the headline, “hundreds of new jobs will be created…” I actually thought for a second there they were new jobs, you know, ones that did not exist before. That’s what I call a properly new job. But these aren’t new jobs, their old ones moved north. I’m splitting hairs, I know. Although, it’s a fine point that at least one Manchester council leader gets. Here’s Councillor Martyn Cox, Greater Manchester Combined Authority lead for Culture, welcoming Dorries’s news: “A new DCMS office in the centre of Greater Manchester will create hundreds of good quality jobs in the city-region for our residents.” Note that last bit, the qualification “for our residents”.

So, hundreds of jobs are shifted from one end of the country to another. Levelling up must lead to levelling down somewhere else, its stands to reason. London and the South-East can easily withstand some job losses, they can afford it. That’s the rationale.

It’s precisely the same thinking, however, that says this is not levelling up at all, not remotely. Because the part of Manchester these officials are heading to is not an area of the North-West that is deprived and disadvantaged. Far from it. The “hub” is 200 metres from the most desirable square in the centre of the city. The DCMS officials will be delighted – their new home is smarter than the one they’re leaving in old, cramped Whitehall. The new gaff is surrounded by trendy restaurants, bars, shops and galleries.

It’s not as if the centre of Manchester does not possess media and tech jobs galore already. It does. Adding to them is not going to make one scrap of difference

They can live in one of the many luxury towers springing up across the city or choose from the numerous loft apartments or move out to smart Didsbury or leafy south Manchester. And not a run-down street, a red-brick terrace, a sprawling sink estate in sight. Neither too, a school-leaver with barely any skills or a third-generation unemployed who has never enjoyed meaningful work. Their commute will be easy as well – not for them the sheer hell of getting across the North, from one town to another, on a creaking railway system and roads that are permanently jammed.

Should they fall sick and visit a hospital they can select from one of central Manchester’s fine teaching hospitals with world-class consultants. They won’t be stuck, elsewhere in the North, facing the possibility of an appointment to see a second-rate doctor because that’s all the local hospital could attract. Nor will they sit in a waiting room with people who endure widening health inequality.

No, the DCMS lot will be swapping one well-off location for another. The key to levelling up, though, as the government’s own recent White Paper makes clear, is to reduce inequalities within regions. This makes them worse.

It’s not as if the centre of Manchester does not possess media and tech jobs galore already. It does. Adding to them is not going to make one scrap of difference, it’s of no benefit so far as levelling up is concerned.

Councillor Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council acknowledged as much when she said it reflected “Manchester’s role as a northern epicentre for culture, media and sport” and cited “our thriving tech sector.”

How can be sending hundreds of staff to work in an “epicentre” or somewhere that is “thriving” count as levelling up?

Cox, the GMCA lead for Culture, also alluded to Manchester being “the fastest-growing digital and tech hub in Europe”. Tim Newns, chief executive of MIDAS, Greater Manchester’s inward investment agency, hailed the DCMS coming to Manchester, “one of Europe’s leading digital cities.”

No one should be fooled by Dorries’s announcement – it looks good, sounds good, but all it amounts to is window-dressing. Levelling up concerns a strategy that is far more complex, that is broader, deeper, and costly to implement. It will also take a long time, and this government is not given to long-termism – its ministers want positive coverage and picture opportunities, preferably involving high-vis jackets, today.

Boris Johnson’s chief cheerleader may congratulate herself on executing a clever stroke, a job well done. It’s a sleight of hand, a confidence trick that should fool nobody.