Notes from the CEDOS Levelling Up Debate – 11th November
On 11th November 2021, CEDOS hosted a Levelling Up debate amongst Local Authority Members to try and define what Levelling Up might mean to members and what interventions might be needed. The notes of the session are below and a link to the Presentation is available via this link.
- There is still a lack of clarity on whether Levelling Up is a narrow economic development tool or a wider approach covering education, health, housing and a wider set of parameters. It will be key to see which direction the new DLUHC and Levelling Up leadership team take the agenda
- UKSPF is seen as a key tool for Levelling Up – there will be lessons to be learnt from the current prioritisation and competitive bidding approach of current/previous MHCLG programmes including CRF
- It would be useful to know ‘what success’ will look like in terms of Levelling Up and what baselines and indicators will be deployed
- The Economic Development profession has had a fairly linear route to market for projects and interventions – either distributing grants or taking a procured route to market (usually based around compliance with ERDF projects). Moving forward it would be beneficial to learn new approaches to designing and implementing interventions – such as Co-design. Derbyshire and Suffolk had both done some work in these areas
- The increasing requirement to ensure Net Zero could have major implications for Levelling Up and future infrastructure applications – particularly for transport projects
- There is a lot of hidden deprivation (especially in rural areas) that may fall through the radar in terms of Levelling Up
- Work with Public Health creates a real opportunity to develop an improved end product to support people into work and to improve broader quality of life / reduce deprivation
- Levelling Up may mean different things if the emphasis is on people or place
- Most emphasis so far is on Levelling Up infrastructure investment – which suggests a relatively narrow approach to date on Levelling Up