Guilherme Rodrigues calls for clarity over the UK's domestic policy if UK cities are to keep pace with their European counterparts.
Levelling up was one of the cornerstones of the Conservative Party’s 2019 election campaign and has remained a key policy topic ever since. Yet progress has been frustratingly slow, and a tumultuous year plagued by rising inflation rates and a struggling economy has raised concerns about the future of the agenda. These fears will not be eased by last week’s reports that a key levelling up policy to deliver regeneration zones across the country is more likely to be scrapped before it is even implemented.
There is perhaps no starker contrast to this than the actions of the EU, which is rolling out its Covid recovery fund in cities that were already stronger performers than many UK urban areas before this latest round of investment.
The Next Generation Programme (NGEU) is a €750 billion fund that includes investments in areas like transport infrastructure, housing, and research and development (R&D). At the country level France will get an investment of €39.4 billion in the coming years, Germany €25.6 billion and Italy €191.6 billion.
The programme’s city-specific projects tend to be in transport, examples of which are set out in Table 1. Lisbon metropolitan area is investing €554 million from the NGEU to expand its metro network and will build a new light rail system by 2026. These projects combined with further investments and ongoing bus reforms (similar to bus franchising) are expected to increase urban mobility significantly. Toulouse is building a new tram line, while Catania is expanding its metro system.
In contrast, there is very little to point to in the UK in terms of delivery. It took more than two years for the Government to define what levelling up was before finally doing so in its white paper in February. This was followed by a period of very little action before Liz Truss seemingly scrapped existing policy and came up with a completely new idea of investment zones, which are also now in doubt. It is unclear whether the white paper policies will be picked up again now that Michael Gove is back at the Department for Levelling Up. This has left the agenda very confused.
There has been some action around the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, which were initially announced last year. From this funding, the plans to build a new mass transit system in West Yorkshire are perhaps the most ambitious. It is intended that work will start in 2028 (two years after Lisbon will have finished its works) and on current timescales, the first phase is estimated be finished in 2031.
That of course assumes that it will go ahead. Intentions have been very different to delivery in the past – a Leeds tram network was originally discussed in the early 90s, approved in 2001 but cancelled four years later. Now, with a lack of certainty over what the Government’s spending plans will be and questions over planned investment, there’s currently no cast iron guarantee that it will be delivered this time.
Table 1: Some of the EU NextGen Transport Projects
City or City Region | Population | Amount Investment | Project details | Status and end date | Other ongoing projects |
Lisbon | 3.0m | €554m |
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Malta | 0.5m | €34m |
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Toulouse | 1.4m | €2.7bn (€200m from EU NextGen) |
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– |
Porto | 1.2m | €365m |
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Catania | 0.6m | €432m (€317m from EU NextGen) |
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Source: Local news, national governments, European Commission. OECD Metro areas. This table does not show all ongoing projects. *Productivity using OECD’s metro areas: ‘GDP per worker in USD, constant prices, constant PPP, base year 2015)’.
The actions of the EU show that it is possible to invest at scale and start delivering on the types of projects that will be needed if UK cities are to close the gaps between them and their European counterparts. For this to happen there first needs to be clarity over what the UK’s domestic policy is going to be. The stop-start nature of implementing levelling up policies has only led to delays that have left the agenda more vulnerable to soaring inflation rates and cost of living pressures. With just two years until the next election, the time to deliver is getting increasingly tight. A clear plan of spending commitments to fund levelling up, coupled with delivery teams to make it happen, is needed. It’s up to the Chancellor to set this out on 17th November if UK cities are even to keep pace with their European counterparts, never mind catch up with them.
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