Levelling up the UK without levelling down London

It is a debate real estate professionals wish they didn’t need to have: how do you level up the country without levelling down London? But fears remain that the government’s push to address underlying economic issues in the regions will leave the capital falling by the wayside. Meanwhile, London is still short of a permanent funding deal for TfL and suffers the highest child poverty rate of any English region, according to analysis by the End Child Poverty campaign. Speaking at EG’s panel discussion on the subject at last week’s MIPIM property conference in Cannes, Rachel Campbell, deputy director of regeneration and urban policy at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, laid out the four key aims of the agenda, following the publication of her department’s long awaited Levelling Up white paper earlier this year. “Levelling up is firstly about increasing productivity and increasing the number of jobs by growing the role of private sector,” she said. “Secondly it is about creating opportunity and improving public services across the whole country. Thirdly, it is about restoring local pride and sense of community across the country. And then finally, it is about empowering local leadership. Those are the four things that we want to see across the board,” she told the panel. “Obviously, London is a critical part of that.” But Philip Graham, executive director for good growth at the Greater London Authority, argued that there appeared to be a discrepancy between politicians’ words and actions on the matter. “We have had meetings with ministers and with civil servants who have told us that levelling up doesn’t mean levelling down London,” he said. “But when you look at a set of funding decisions and some of the tricky negotiations we had around TfL, for example… it does feel like there is a risk that the recovery will be uneven.” Devolution is not “done” in London Graham added that while the GLA understood that there was a need for more direct grant funding to other parts of the country, London would benefit from greater local powers to “take advantage of some of the prosperity in some parts of the capital and enable that to be spread more effectively”. “Our disappointment with the Levelling Up white paper is that it takes London devolution as the summit. And we want to know how we can have a conversation with the government about how we can further it,” he added. DLUHC’s Campbell responded: “[Devolution] is an area where there is a lot that places have to learn from London. That is not saying that London devolution is ‘done’… but I think there’s a lot that other city regions look at and think: ‘What would we have done with that, what would we like to do a bit differently, and what can we share?’” Placemaking in the regions Meanwhile, the panellists also agreed that the rest of the country should look at examples of placemaking in London when thinking about how to plan major regeneration projects such as those slated for Wolverhampton and Sheffield as part of the levelling up plans. Campbell picked out King’s Cross, the site of a two-decade regeneration project led by Argent, as a key success story to learn from: once a district with vast tracts of derelict land and high poverty rates, the area has been transformed into a thriving business hub with homes, a school, and a renewed sense of community. “When we come to Wolverhampton and Sheffield, we need to look at what is a good place and who is it for,” she said. “People need to actually want to spend time there.” Richard Sterling, national head of land and development at Willmott Dixon, expanded on this point, saying that placemaking should not be solely about making areas look nice but that developers should make sure “there are opportunities and jobs that make people want to be there”. He added: “Levelling up is a great platform to create that in other parts of the country. You can actually have a purpose for being there that goes beyond just a nice looking public open space that no one is ever going to walk over,” he said. “The rest of the country can absolutely learn from how London has done that.” What “good” levelling up looks like And while the panellists disagreed on some points, when asked to pick out the ultimate objectives of levelling up for London and the UK they were unequivocal: it is not an either-or between the capital and the regions. Graham said levelling up should mean “that London continues to make great places, but that the disparities such as the very high levels of employment are reduced and ultimately eradicated so that the same opportunity exists for someone growing up on an estate in Haringey as exists for those growing up in the leafy streets of Kensington”. He added: “My goal for levelling up in the UK is that we stop having to have this conversation. These are not competing objectives. There are all kinds of questions about how you divide up finite pots of money and how you consider what powers are appropriate in which places. “But, ultimately, when you get to the bottom of this, the UK succeeds where London succeeds, and London succeeds where the UK succeeds. There is no competition here.” Campbell summed up: “This is about making poor parts of the country richer without making richer parts of the country poorer.” The panel Rachel Campbell, deputy director, regeneration and urban policy, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Philip Graham, executive director, Good Growth, Greater London Authority Gail Mayhew, managing director, Bournemouth, Christchurchand Poole Future Places Richard Sterling, national head of land and development, Willmott Dixon To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@eg.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @EGPropertyNews