Levelling Up. What’s the deal for Worcestershire?

This is a personal perspective on the White Paper and how it may impact on communities in Worcestershire. Its intention is to provoke debate on the practical application of government policy in this area.

First of all, we have to applaud any government that declares its explicit intention to “give everyone the opportunity to flourish", after all that is what most of the VCS is about. Then we have to say to that government that we will be their critical friend, accepting their bold intention and helping them to turn it into a reality for the people of Worcestershire.

The White paper’s analysis begins well with the recognition that action must apply to every place, that it must not pit one place against another and that it must include individuals or small communities suffering disadvantage even if they exist in a sea of affluence. So far so good. But this is where it starts to get a bit flaky.

The document is heavy on general ambition as set out in the twelve missions but in extremely light on what is actually going to be done. I know that this will come out as specific policies emerge but I am worried that the ambition and inclusivity described in the White paper will get watered down. In particular that the London/South East centric perspective will see Worcestershire as quite comfortable and excluded from action. We have already seen evidence of this, for example how come Redditch is only a priority 2 for action?

In a county that is predominantly rural, it is disturbing to see no commitment to rural-proofing nor clarity that funding will be targeted at the need to take action to level up at appropriate granularity as well as addressing the more obvious needs in metropolitan areas.

In a particular concern, but one that illustrates my more general worry, I wonder why the 2019 election commitment to achieve 100% coverage of high quality broadband by 2025 has been watered down. This is a levelling-down not levelling-up for many communities in Worcestershire.

So, as critical friends let us keep government on their toes. Let’s insist that Worcestershire is firmly on the levelling up map and let’s demand to see the detail of what will be delivered here.

This is hard because we have so many more immediate demands on our time and energy, but if we let this opportunity slip by we will regret it for years to come.

Roger Britton
Chair
Community First

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