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At long last the Levelling Up White Paper has been published. Over its long gestation period it has moved a long way from the idea of wholesale reform of local government. This is not terribly surprising given the backlash the attempts made last year generated.
The intention behind the White Paper is to tackle the stark geographical inequality within the UK. It characterises previous policy failures to do this as a lack of:
Forgive the cynicism but we have had more than thirty years of governments of all descriptions trying to address this problem. This appears to me to be the first time that the issues that need to be tackled and the levers that need to be pulled have been properly addressed.
Underlying this approach is the desperate need to improve the UK's economic performance. Since 2007 the improvement in the UK's productivity has been extremely weak. With all the challenges we now face, this is the year this lack of performance begins to bite.
If these proposals are really driven through, it will mean that local leadership will have to rise to the challenge. There will need to be a much clearer focus on the strategic long term view, based on at least a ten year time horizon. I cannot help but think that this will mean making some challenging and probably unpopular decisions in the face of inevitable protests.
In the feedback we received to the public consultation on the District Council's budget for next year, one of the pieces of feedback that horrified me was “people will always come to Stratford." This is the kind of short term complacency we cannot afford. We need to invest now for the benefit of future generations. To do this we will need District Councillors who are prepared to provide real community leadership and not just ‘bend with the wind' every time there are protests, in reality, by a small minority.
As Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, put it: “The more ambitious [we are] the better." We are certainly ambitious. We have two areas of development of potentially international significance; the World Shakespeare Centre and Wellesbourne Campus/Airfield. The amount of time and effort we have put, and are still putting in, to make these a reality is huge. The prizes will be well worth it. We also have one other area of development that is of merely national significance, the Porterbrook Rail Innovation Centre at Long Marston. Not bad for a rural District Council.
Indeed, we made a presentation to Andy Street a couple of weeks ago about these projects and our initiatives. The feedback we have had is that he was impressed.
This is very important because the West Midlands has been identified as an area that will be at the forefront of devolution. It will serve as a model for other Metropolitan Combined Authorities in line for a ‘trailblazing' deepening devolution deal. As yet there is no understanding of what that will mean in practice.
I should remind everyone that we are a non-constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), as is Warwickshire County Council.
I anticipate that a ‘deepening devolution deal' will mean that the WMCA gains power, influence and that increasingly financing and resources will be channelled through it. Given the scale of our ambitions and the investment needed to underpin the likely shape of the South Warwickshire Plan through to 2050, this can only be to our advantage.
Many people may find what I have said uncomfortable. If we are to shape a very positive and exciting future for the District, however, we will need an organisation with the scale, resources and ambition to help us achieve it. I think that the WMCA is therefore ‘the only game in town.'
This really is a time to seize the day and our opportunities. We intend to do just that.
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