Levelling up should have three key metrics
An issue raised a number of times during this week’s Conservative Party Conference (and also raised to us by civil servants in recent months) is what metrics should be used to measure the success of levelling up. This is an important question – past policy has rarely had success metrics attached to it, and evaluation of it has been rarer still. So, these questions are very welcome. Here are Centre for Cities’ proposals on what those metrics should be.
Party Conference didn’t bring us much closer to defining what levelling up is. Neil O’Brien helpfully set out four guiding principles, while the prime minister in his speech very much pointed to it being driven by geographic differences across the country. But a much tighter definition will be needed to allow it to be measured, and the forthcoming white paper is anticipated to do this.
What is levelling up?
🗳1) Empowering local leaders & communities
👷♀️2) Growing the private sector & boosting living standards, particularly where they’re lower
🙋♀️3) Spreading opportunity & improving public services, particularly where they’re lacking
❤️4) Restoring local pride— Neil O’Brien MP (@NeilDotObrien) October 3, 2021
Centre for Cities defines levelling up as two things:
A number of politicians noted during Conference, including Ben Houchen at our In Conversation event, the tension between the many years it’ll take for levelling up to be achieved and the need to show voters progress at the next election. That there is a longer-term focus is welcome – such policies have been plagued by short termism in the past.
The solution offered was to be able to demonstrate intent. Michael Gove used the analogy of schools being converted to academies: intent is shown by rebranding and repainting of the school, but ultimately this must be followed up with interventions to improve school grades. So the view is that spending money on the high street, for example, in the run up to the next election is important, but it can’t just be about that if levelling up is to have an impact. Expect the signalling of a number of staging posts before 2024.
The cynics will say that the success metric will be the number of Conservative votes in the ballot box in the next General Election. In fairness, the sense at Conference was that the Government is thinking more long-term. Centre for Cities proposes the following three metrics to ultimately measure whether levelling up has been achieved:
The setting of such benchmarks would allow a very clear measurement of the success of the policy. This of course can be uncomfortable for any politician, and is why we see it so rarely happen. We wait to see how specific the white paper, due later this month, will be.
In advance of the Government’s forthcoming Levelling Up White Paper, this briefing sets out what the levelling up agenda should aim to achieve and a strategy for achieving it.
The public know what it will take to level up their area, but most aren’t confident that the Government will achieve it.
The Metro Mayor on what levelling up means for Greater Manchester and his vision for the city region.
Levelling up the economy should be about helping struggling places, but policy must recognise its limitations in how much it can do for different places.
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