Labour’s deputy leader has branded Government levelling up efforts “a scam and a sham”.
The party has pledged to “power up every corner of Britain” if it wins at the General Election, as Angela Rayner took aim at the Conservatives’ proposal to wind up the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) by 2028 and plough the funding into a new national service scheme.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned earlier this week that wealthier areas of the UK stand to receive a “substantial increase in net funding” if the next government was to plough money previously reserved for “levelling up” into military or civic opportunities for 18-year-olds, while poorer areas like Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, Cornwall and the Tees Valley “could together lose out on hundreds of millions of pounds”.
Labour has announced Ms Rayner will set off on a 5,000-mile battle bus tour on Saturday to promote its new “power up” agenda.
The deputy leader said: “No more desperate gimmicks or promises that can’t be met. This changed Labour Party will do the hard yards to get our economy growing. We will power up our towns and cities, and release Britain’s untapped strengths.”
Ms Rayner added: “For 14 years the Tories have failed to do what they promised and held back Britain’s potential. Levelling up was a phoney gimmick which has now been abandoned to fund mandatory national service. It was a scam and a sham, and we should call it what it is.”
She also said: “We will deliver growth wherever you’re from, more money in your pockets, and hand people control over what matters to them.”
Under the heading “deliver growth in every corner of the country”, the party has pledged to roll out Local Growth Plans alongside a new industrial strategy and its proposed Green Prosperity Plan.
A second pledge, “to put more money in people’s pockets”, re-states the party’s ambition for a “fiscal lock” – a revised charter of budget responsibility with power handed to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to independently publish a forecast rather than be requested to do so by the government.
The final pledge to “give people control over what matters to them” features a wide-ranging ambitions around access to GP appointments and to “breathe life back into our high streets and neighbourhoods including introducing a community right to buy”.
The party said in a statement that a Take Back Control Act “will help to establish a new, clear framework for devolution, structures for local and national leaders to work better in partnership together and with the communities they represent, and a presumption towards pushing powers outside of Westminster and into the hands of those who know how to put them to the best use”.
The Prime Minister has defended his party’s levelling up efforts on the campaign trail.
Speaking in Penzance earlier this week, Rishi Sunak said: “I am absolutely committed to levelling up in Cornwall and you can see our track record.”
He claimed investment in high streets, hospitals and transport infrastructure “are all examples of the investment that is going into levelling up here in Cornwall and that will always continue under a Conservative government led by me”.
Mr Sunak also defended his party’s plan for a national service scheme – to cost £2.5 billion, paid for using £1 billion from a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion and £1.5 billion by winding up the UKSPF.
He said: “This modern form of national service will mean that young people get the skills and the opportunities that they need which is going to serve them very well in life.”
But some think tanks have pushed back on the policy.
David Phillips, IFS associate director, said: “Rather than being targeted at poorer areas and aimed at levelling up, the funding would be spread across the country based on where 18-year-olds are undertaking their military or community service.
“The scheme may therefore create opportunities for young people across the UK but would mean hundreds of millions less in funding for community and economic development in Wales, Cornwall and the North and Midlands of England.”
Matthew Lesh, of the pro-free market Institute of Economic Affairs said: “Young adults are being penalised economically while losing their autonomy to make decisions about their lives and bodies.
“A new form of infantilisation extending from restrictions on childhood freedom — that begin with less unsupervised time for children — is moving into young adulthood.”
