Michael Gove vows to ‘turbocharge’ every part of the country

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Michael Gove today vowed to ‘turbocharge the potential of every part of the UK’ as he unveiled the Government’s long-awaited ‘Levelling Up’ plan. 

The Levelling Up Secretary set out his vision to deliver on Boris Johnson‘s 2019 general election pledge to improve life in left-behind areas.  

Setting out his proposals in the House of Commons, Mr Gove said the nation must get back to ‘moving at top speed again’ after more than 18 months of Covid disruption. 

He pledged to ‘tackle and reverse’ inequality as he promised to devolve more powers away from Westminster and to create more regional mayors ‘where people want them’.  

Mr Gove said the ‘economic prize from levelling up is potentially enormous’, with the Government proposing action in a wide variety of areas.  

The Government is pledging that by 2030 pay, employment and productivity will have risen in every part of the UK, with each region including a ‘globally competitive’ city.    

There will be ‘better local transport bringing the rest of the country closer to the standards of London’s transport system’ and billions of pounds will be spent on rolling out gigabit capable broadband and 4G coverage to the whole nation.

On education, Mr Gove pledged to ‘effectively eradicate illiteracy and innumeracy’ with more investment to improve schools and colleges. 

And on housing, Mr Gove promised a ‘secure path to greater home ownership’ for renters as well as a new £1.5billion Levelling Up Home Building fund. 

This will give loans to small and medium-sized building firms to deliver more properties, the ‘vast majority of which will be outside London and the south east’.  

Mr Gove published his policy white paper this afternoon after saying this morning that people in the North of England and the Midlands have been ‘overlooked and undervalued for years’ by politicians. 

The Cabinet minister rejected claims from critics that the Government is reheating old policies and previously announced cash but admitted he had not got all the money he had asked for from Chancellor Rishi Sunak. 

Meanwhile, he said the House of Lords could temporarily move to Glasgow or York when Parliament is being renovated. 

Mr Johnson yesterday pledged that the ‘Levelling Up’ plan amounted to an eight-year ‘moral mission’ to spread opportunity across the country by 2030.

The 400-page strategy covers almost every aspect of life from literacy levels and life expectancy to jobs, bus services and street cleaning, with detailed pledges and targets in each area.

It sets out 12 ‘missions to level up the UK’, including striking pledges to make the country happier and healthier.     

Mr Gove told Sky News this morning that people in the North of England and the Midlands have been ‘overlooked and undervalued for years’ by successive governments. 

He said the ‘Brexit referendum was a wake-up call’, telling the broadcaster: ‘As well as a clear commandment to leave the European Union it was also a way of saying to people in SW1, people like me, ‘look, it’s vital that you change the economic model of this country. It’s all very well if people are in London and the Southeast in financial services and others do well, we don’t begrudge that. But you’ve got to listen to us’.’

Mr Gove said mistakes had been made by ‘parties of both colours’ and that ‘one of the things in the past is there have been sincere and committed attempts by politicians left and right to deal with this’.

‘But nothing as comprehensive or as long-term as the plan that we’re setting out today,’ he said.

Mr Gove raised the prospect of the House of Lords moving out of London as an example of levelling up. 

He told Times Radio: ‘We’ve got our friends in the House of Lords who will have to move out of their current building, at the moment, because of the renovation of the Palace of Westminster.

‘I think it’d be a really good thing if the House of Lords were to meet for at least part of the time in Glasgow or in York. I think it would do us all good.’

Mr Gove defended the amount of money the Government is spending on levelling up, telling the BBC: ‘What we’re doing is we’re taking numbers from a Treasury spreadsheet and transforming it into real change in people’s lives.

‘The Chancellor, in the Spending Review, outlined significant increases in public spending in a range of areas – in transport, in support for local government, in education, and health and social care.

‘That was money put in, if you like, in departmental bank accounts, and now we are spending that money and it’s being allocated to the mayors and other local leaders who are best placed to drive change in their own communities.’

Asked if he had pushed for more money from the Chancellor but was denied, the Levelling Up Secretary said: ‘I did ask the Chancellor for a lot and he gave it to me, that was what was happening in the Spending Review.’

Asked if he had got all the money he wanted, he said: ‘Well, in this life we never get everything we want, but, in the words of Mick Jagger, you might not always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need.’

Labour’s shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said the Government’s plan lacked ambition. 

She said: ‘Ministers have had two and a half years to get this right and all we been given is more slogans and strategies, with few new ideas. 

‘Boris Johnson’s answer to our communities calling for change is to shuffle the deckchairs – new government structures, recycled pots of money and a small refund on the money this Government have taken from us. 

‘This is not what we were promised. We deserve far more ambition this.’

Mr Gove’s dossier includes a commitment to narrow the yawning gap in life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas – and an eye-catching pledge to raise average ‘healthy life expectancy’ by five years by 2035.

Healthy life expectancy, which measures the years before ill health starts to take its toll, stands at an average 62.9 years for men and 63.4 years for women.

Regional variations in overall life expectancy vary widely, with a gap of more than ten years for men and more than eight years for women between the least and most healthy areas.

Blackpool has the lowest life expectancy in England, with men living an average 74.1 years compared to 84.7 years in Westminster – a gap government sources described as a ‘gross disparity’.

The new plan also pledges to make people happier, with targets for improving ‘wellbeing’ and action to improve community pride, including investment in town centres and local culture.

Mr Gove last night said the project was vital to convincing new Tory voters to stick with the Government, adding: ‘Unless we are the Government for levelling up, we will fail the people who voted for us.’

The PM told the Cabinet yesterday that levelling up was the Government’s ‘moral mission’.

Last night he said that the Government’s aim was to ‘break the link between geography and destiny so that no matter where you live you have access to the same opportunities’.

Warning that change would take time, he added: ‘The challenges we face have been embedded over generations and cannot be dug out overnight but this white paper is the next crucial step.

‘It is the most comprehensive, ambitious plan of its kind that this country has ever seen.’

Critics have pointed out that Mr Sunak blocked the release of more money for the launch of today’s plan. 

But officials last night stressed £4.8billion has already been committed to levelling up this Parliament, with much of the cash yet to be allocated.

Mr Gove also said that the sweeping ambition of the plan meant that almost all government departments would have to devote time and resources to it, including more money for tackling health, crime and unemployment. He said it would require a ‘whole of government effort’.

He told the BBC: ‘There is going to be a shift both of power and money away from London and the South East, towards the North and Midlands.

‘For too long our country’s been over centralised and you’ve had the elites in London, who haven’t really understood all of the problems that people in communities like Grimsby and Cleethorpes face.’

The new plan will be accompanied by a range of targets to allow people to measure performance. The Government will commit to producing an annual report setting out progress in each area.