By ‘Levelling up’ plan finally unveiled by Michael Gove after multiple delays
The long-awaited plans to close the gap between the North and South o the country have been unveiled by government after multiple delays.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove unveiled the plans this morning, which will take until 2030 to improve services such as education, broadband and transport.
However, Labour have said that the strategy contained no new money and little fresh thinking.
The government has allocated a £4.8bn fund to support regeneration, transport projects, and education across the UK as part of the programme.
Under new plans, the government have outlined their ambition to “transform the UK by spreading opportunity and prosperity to all parts of it.”
The levelling up white paper was originally set to be unveiled on Octobe last year but was delayed twice more before being released today.
The Conervative party put “Levelling Up” at the heart of thei election campaign back in 2019 but until now no action to bring th scheme into fruition has been made.
Twelve national levelling up missions are set to shift the government’s focus and resources to Britain’s forgotten communities.
These include:
- Increase pay, employment and productivity in all areas of the UK, with each one containing a “globally competitive city”
- Raise public investment in research and development outside the south-east of England by 40%
- Eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy by refocusing education spending on the most disadvantaged parts of the country
- Increase the number of people completing high quality skills training – in England, this will mean 200,000 more people a year
- Bring the rest of the country’s public transport “significantly closer” to London standards
- Provide access to gigabit-capable broadband nationwide by 2030 and 5G mobile data coverage for the “large majority” of households
- Create more first-time homebuyers in all areas, and reduce the number of “non-decent rented homes” by 50%
- Narrow the gap of healthy life expectancy between the areas where it is lowest and highest
- Improve “well-being” in every area of the UK
- Increase “pride of place”, such as people’s satisfaction with their town centre and engagement in local culture and community
- Reduce murder, manslaughter, serious violence and neighbourhood crime, especially in the worst-affected areas
- Give every part of England that wants it a devolution deal with more regional powers and simplified, long-term funding
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