New Prime Minister and Levelling Up Secretary of State
CEDOS would like to welcome the new Prime Minister, Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP into his post and congratulate him on being the first British Asian Prime Minister, a true landmark for the UK. We would also like to welcome a familiar face to the return to the position of Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP. After a period of significant change, including a fourth Secretary of State in as many months, our members hope we are now in for a period of stability – and a period when there is an unblocking of some of the key decisions and agendas that affect localities across England that have stalled in recent months.
Economic growth, especially at a local level, is driven by resilient businesses with the confidence to invest in measures to drive innovation and improve productivity. It is driven by a strong labour market, which offers a range of opportunities at all levels of salary and skills – and where employers are prepared to invest in supporting their staff to develop and progress. It is driven by a strong business environment, where goods and services can be produced and traded efficiently, a place where staff want to live and work, where there are opportunities to learn and where there are strong intangibles, including partnerships between business, civil society and the public sector and clear forward planning.
For Local Authorities to enable and facilitate this set of circumstances to the best of our collective abilities, we need the resources and devolved powers to do so. There are clearly some difficult decisions for the Government to take with regards to taxation and spending given the current state of the economy and public finances. We strongly feel that the cost of living and economic crisis is not a reason in itself to lessen investment in initiatives to stimulate economic growth and inclusion. Economic development is part of the solution and way out of this crisis.
Whilst we await the new Prime Minister’s priorities and early programme, we hope to see at least a maintenance of current resources to support renewal and Levelling Up, a reinvigorated devolution process and decisions on some of the key funding and infrastructure challenges that many of our members are waiting on.