The Guardian view on the levelling up white paper: anaemic and inadequate to the task

theguardian.com:

The appointment of Michael Gove as secretary of state for levelling up last September was an apparent statement of intent by Boris Johnson. His most effective and energetic minister had been tasked with delivering his administration’s flagship policy, on which its prospects of re-election were believed to depend.

The phrase “levelling up” has been criticised for its vagueness and lack of definition. But the political logic at work in its formulation was always crystal clear. The Brexit referendum and its aftermath led swathes of voters in post-industrial Labour heartlands to vote for a Conservative government. In order to consolidate the support of the red wall, Mr Johnson pledged to rebalance an economy that suffers from a higher level of regional inequality than any comparable country. However opportunistically the prime minister stumbled upon it, this is a praiseworthy and vital agenda. As Mr Gove said on Wednesday in the House of Commons, parts of the nation have felt “overlooked and undervalued” for decades.

The long-awaited levelling up white paper was supposed to lay out how this gigantic challenge would be met. It failed miserably to do so. Instead, Mr Gove offered a set of unresourced aspirations to be delivered by 2030 in areas such as health, transport, living standards, crime and “wellbeing”. These 12 “missions” to level up were coupled with a commitment to greater devolution across England, but no significant new powers were offered to mayors or local authorities. For the rest, it was mostly ad hoc, unstrategic stuff. Local regeneration projects were announced for 20 new towns and cities, starting with Sheffield and Wolverhampton, but the money appears to have been recycled. The pledge to increase R&D spending