Inside Politics: Levelling up plan criticised for lack of ambition

Expected that no new money will be announced in plan governemnt says will ‘transform the UK’, writes Matt Mathers

Wednesday 02 February 2022 09:59 GMT

Michael Gove said the plan would end a ‘historic injustice’ (Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Wire)

Another delayed and hotly anticipated report is finally due to be published. This one has nothing to do with senior civil servant Sue Gray. And judging by this morning’s papers and news websites, it looks as though it is going to create far less of a splash too. Michael Gove has announced his plan for levelling up and will later publish a white paper on Boris Johnson’s government’s flagship policy. With no new money expected to be announced, the plan is already being criticised for a lack of ambition. Elsewhere, the PM is facing fresh partygate claims and Labour is urging Rishi Sunak to cancel a planned £1bn-a-year tax cuts for banks and use the cash to ease the blow of the cost-of-living crisis.

*This article was updated at 09:57am on 02/02/2022 to reflect changes regarding the government’s levelling up plan. Inside Politics incorrectly reported that Michael Gove had published a government white paper. He in fact published a preview of the paper, which was due to be published following his statement to the Commons later in the day.

Inside the bubble

Commons proceedings start at 11.30 am with Scotland Office questions followed by another not-to-be-missed PMQs at noon. After that, Gove will give a statement to the house on the levelling up white paper. Later, the main business will see the remaining stages of the Finance (No 2) Bill considered

Coming up:

– Levelling up secretary Michael Gove on BBC Radio 4 Today at 8.10am

– Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy on Times Radio Breakfast at 8.35am

NO NEW MONEY: Gove has set out a preview of the government’s strategy for ‘levelling up’, which it claims will “transform the UK”. So what’s in the plan? For a start, there is no new money beyond the £10bn already announced in the No 10’s spending review. The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government says “our 12 new national levelling up missions will drive real change in towns and cities across the UK, so that where you live will no longer determine how far you can go.” But officials told The Independent the whitepaper is long in word and short in deed. According to Anna Isaac, our economics editor, “there’s a simple problem at the heart of levelling up: there’s not enough money to scratch the surface of regional inequality.” Anna adds the document will likely change little despite being twice delayed” and has “failed to show the ambition many had hoped for.”

WHAT DOES LABOUR SAY?: Lisa Nandy, Gove’s shadow and the co-founder of the Centre for Towns think tank – who has been championing England’s towns long before the DHCLG was given a rebrand – has accused her opposite number of attempting to regenerate left-behind areas of the country “on the cheap”. In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Nandy launched a stinging attack on the government, saying ministers were “out of energy” and “out of ideas”, as a row continues to rage over Johnson’s future in No 10. She claimed the strategy – appeared to be “more about a reset” for the PM, rather than “turning around an economic settlement that hasn’t worked for a lot of places for decades”.

MEANWHILE: A new report looking into levelling up schemes already in progress – such as the towns and levelling up funds – has offered a damning assessment, saying billions of pounds spent in both may have been wasted because ministers are picking projects too small to revive poorer areas and failing to analyse “what works”. The National Audit Office also says grants issued from the funds are not being “based on evidence”. It comes after criticism of “pork barrel politics” as allocations from the two funds favoured Conservative areas – for voter-friendly improvements such as libraries and leisure centres. Meg Hillier, the Labour MP and chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, accused the government of turnings “on the taps without really knowing where to direct the hose”.

WINNER TAKES IT ALL PART 2: Gray’s report has not long been published, the Met Police investigation ongoing and still the partygate reports continue to fly in, with Johnson this morning facing not one, but two, new and separate allegations that he attended lockdown-busting gatherings. The first, and potentially most damaging for the PM, is a report in The Telegraph saying that he was in his Downing Street digs on 13 November 2020 – the day Dominic Cummings, his former top adviser, was forced out of Downing Street and ABBA’s The Winner Takes It All was reportedly heard blaring from the flat above No 11. This is one of the four gatherings being investigated by the Met. Another report, also appearing in the Telegraph as well as The Guardian, is that Johnson gave a speech at a “prosecco-fuelled” leaving do allegedly held in No 10 during the third national coronavirus lockdown. Downing Street’s response? It can’t comment while the Met is investigating. Cummings claims there are photos of Johnson at some of the events the force is looking into, which he says will “incriminate” him. We’ll have all the latest reaction to the levelling up paper and new partygate reports here.

COST OF LIVING LATEST: Labour is challenging chancellor Rishi Sunak to cancel a planned £1bn-a-year tax cuts for banks and use the cash to ease the blow of the cost-of-living crisis on working people. An amendment to the Finance Bill being debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday would halt a planned cut from 8 to 3 per cent in the surcharge levied on banking profits over £25m from next year. Instead, Labour says the estimated £1bn annual cost of the reduction could be used to fund home improvements for hundreds of thousands of families to soften the blow of energy bill rises expected to average around £700 from April. It comes as new data suggests that shoppers have been hit by the highest price rises in almost 10 years after shop inflation almost doubled over the past month. According to the latest BRC-NielsenIQ shop price index, annual shop price inflation jumped from 0.8% in December, to 1.5% in January, the highest rate since 2012.Food inflation rose from 2.4% in December to 2.7% in January, as price rises reached the highest rate since October 2013, Ambient food inflation also jumped to 2.4% in January compared with 1.7% in December, which is the highest increase since November 2020.

PPE WASTE: The government has been accused of “wasting” billions on unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) and buying kit at inflated prices, after a report revealed the huge scale of losses. The department of health’s annual accounts report revealed that £8.7bn spent on PPE last year had been written off – admitting to a “significant loss of value to the taxpayer”. The annual report stated: “The department estimates that there has been a loss in value of £8.7bn of the £12.1bn of PPE purchased in 2020-21.” Around £2.6bn was spent on PPE “not suitable for use in the NHS” and another £673m was spent on kit not suitable for use by anyone, the report discovered. Labour said this level of “waste” destroyed Conservative claims to be “careful stewards” of taxpayers’ money, while the Liberal Democrats said the losses showed the Tories “cannot be trusted with our money”.

On the record

“It would not be appropriate to comment while a Metropolitan Police investigation is ongoing.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson responds to reports PM attended a leaving do during lockdown last year.

From the Twitterati

“‘Listening to him made me feel dirty.’” Boris Johnson may be safe for now, but emotions still running high among many moderate Tory MPs.. watch out for at least one more call for him to resign tomorrow.”