To think the Northern towns deserve "levelling up"

[EricBartholomew]

It's been a good news day in that the levelling up fund has now been distributed and announced. Today on the radio I've heard much disappointment from those who weren't afforded funding (in Leeds and certain areas in Liverpool, other cities).

AIBU to be pleased that the biggest lump of cash is going to somewhere like Morecambe and not a city or a town of the fringes of a city? They already benefit from the wealth there and the investment that comes with it.

There has been a feeling of being "left to rot" in some of these towns for so long that we have nothing but our communities pulling together. I'm so pleased that there is hope (and funding) today for the beautiful Morecambe Bay and other towns that have got levelling up funding. It's well deserved.

The country got trolled again today and people fell for it because the media told you to. £2 billion is a joke and won’t even touch the sides to do what’s needed to be done.

But far more importantly, this is not levelling up, this is charity. Levelling up means creating industry and economic growth through ongoing inward investment in a part of the country so it gets really good at some form for commerce. Think tech hubs like silicone valley, or car manufacturing hubs like Bavaria.

In other news, this incompetent government failed to get off the ground a true levelling up opportunity as the company backing the gigafactory for electric car batteries in the northeast went into administration. That one project would be worth £2 billion.

This government is corrupt and incompetent in the same way as governments of the last 25 years. The public is truly stupid for falling for these gimmicks. But then again this is the same public that was cheering, banging pots and pans like idiots in their doorways while locked away and spending printed billions, not considering for a second what that would do to the economy.

OP I hope it works well

tbh I didn't even understand the Blackpool money for a carbon neutral multiversity...

I haven’t heard suggestion that the projects which were successful aren’t deserving, more that it takes the piss that so much has had to be spent on bidding only for other very deserving projects to be refused.

And if you think something like the Eden Project north thing is going to compensate for an imploding adult and children’s social care budget as a result of over a decade of cuts to local government budgets you’re sadly naive.

Levelling up is just spin imo.

I live in a market town 23 miles from a northern city. To get to that city for a 9 am start includes a ten mile drive to a train station, and a £40 day return ticket. Takes 90 mins, one train an hour.

Vanity projects do not help the general public access basic services, transport, social care, improved education services and local health services need to be improved (the same city is the hospital I need to attend clinics at).

I haven’t been for my COVID booster this winter - why? Because the nearest place to my home I can have it done is 12 miles away. If you don’t drive (I do but I need to take 1/2 a days leave to do it) that’s 70 minutes on two buses each way. The first bus journey costs £8 return.

A decent public transport system in the north should be a bigger priority. Instead the budgets are being wiped out.

What sst1234 said.

I understand the wanting towns like Morcombe to be recognised as deserving investment. But this funding is not investing in things which will bring long term wealth to the area. It’s a bit of window dressing that will look tired in a decade (if we’re lucky). There’s no leveling up going on here.

I don't know Morecombe - looks lovely, def on my list to visit.

I therefore have no clue if locals would feel that £50million into the Eden Project is well spent? I mean, it sounds fab, but is it the case that other things could have used the money?

"I don't know Morecombe - looks lovely, def on my list to visit.

I therefore have no clue if locals would feel that £50million into the Eden Project is well spent? I mean, it sounds fab, but is it the case that other things could have used the money?"

This is a very good point because it has never been an option to have that level of investment in Morecambe in any other way.

As a community, Morecambe has always wanted to go back to its "heyday", to bring people back in to visit. It's a holiday resort, always has been, always will be. Visitors and holidaymakers will always be welcome in Morecambe.

This is just using public money to buy votes.

Nowhere ever got prosperous from having the government give it a bung. Prosperity needs there to be a reason why actual investors (not charitable donors) would put money into a region in order to build growing businesses.

As a community, Morecambe has always wanted to go back to its "heyday", to bring people back in to visit.

As an ex-resident of somewhere very like Morecambe, these places got run-down because people stopped going. People didn't stop going because they got run-down.

It's a similar confusion of cause and effect that is behind the Tory bribes.

"As an ex-resident of somewhere very like Morecambe, these places got run-down because people stopped going. People didn't stop going because they got run-down."

That's very simplistic. Seaside towns, and Morecambe specifically, became a dumping ground for society's "unwanted" after their popularity waned.

The reason their popularity waned was a mixture of lack of funding and being the first places to lose that, a shift in society and international travel becoming cheap and easy, and then the obvious impact of them becoming said "dumping grounds". Which they still are, I might add

"This is just using public money to buy votes.

Nowhere ever got prosperous from having the government give it a bung. Prosperity needs there to be a reason why actual investors (not charitable donors) would put money into a region in order to build growing businesses."

Agree. Like the local economy already showing record year on year improvement. Like footfall being 70% up in 2022, more than any UK town. Like the investment that was given to regenerate the promenade (and they've carried out the works to a high standard). Like the RNLI stations here having top turnover in their shops for 2 years running despite being in a town that basically runs quiet in winter at the moment.

As for votes. The tories will have to do more than fund Eden to get my vote 🤣

"I live in a market town 23 miles from a northern city. To get to that city for a 9 am start includes a ten mile drive to a train station, and a £40 day return ticket. Takes 90 mins, one train an hour."

I'd be interested to know where this is. And if the city is Bradford then I've plenty to say about that. Im outraged that Bradford isn't even on a national rail line, amongst other things.

The actual Eden Project: located in a stunningly beautiful part of the British Isles, with balmy weather.

Eden Project North: located on the wet and windswept coast of the north west. What could possibly go wrong?

That's IF it actually happens at all.

No wonder the Tories keep getting in when voters can't see through this nonsensical shillery.

For actual prosperity we need regional centres in the same way Germany has them. What we don't need is this tinkly window dressing...

"The actual Eden Project: located in a stunningly beautiful part of the British Isles, with balmy weather.

Eden Project North: located on the wet and windswept coast of the north west. What could possibly go wrong?"

This is the exact narrative that keeps places like Morecambe down.

What's not "stunningly beautiful" about Morecambe Bay? It deserves that narrative a million times over Bodelva! As for "wet and windswept", yeah, when it's windy it's windy but you only have to look at the photographs today, in January. It's been blue sky, cold but not windy. Morecambe often shows in the "sunniest" places year on year. Boldeva never does.

*bodelva

£13 mill for his own affluent community is grating my cheese.

Agree with that @SpacersChoice I've got to say.

This is Morecambe today, mid January and the "normal" weather here. Yes, when it rains it rains but it passes so quick and this is normal.

Scuse the dickheads either side of the big man himself 🤣

Morecambe is very nice if somewhat run down and more than it's fair share of druggies and students. In it's heyday it tried to rival Blackpool but more 'posh' but that day has long gone , it was my grannies favourite holiday destination she lived in Scorton. If it were down south it would have been gentrified long ago. I come from Preston and love Blackpool and might even move back someday. Levelling up was always bollocks dreamt up post Brexit/Johnson to try and placate the so called Red Wall and make them think they actually cared about them the truth is they don't. When I left the north to go to Surrey University and lived down south I was shocked at how few southerners had never gone north not even N.Wales of the Lakes - the continent was just as easy , more exotic and guaranteed sun.

I disagree that nowhere got prosperous by the government giving it money. But that money needs to be investment in good infrastructure, like roads and rail, and education. And in developing laws and putting diplomatic effort into attracting trade that complements skills.

The City of London didn’t gain its status as an international financial capital without plenty of government investment. Businesses wanted to go there, but the government wasn’t sitting on its hands while that happened. They worked hard to make sure companies wanted to HQ in London.

Like glitter rolling a turd. Two towns local to me were successful. One is already affluent to the detriment of the rest of the county (that's where the money always goes). In the other they're proposing regeneration of a theatre amongst other things. All well and good but no one can bloody afford to go there.
Pay people properly and develop the infrastructure and the turds will turn into the glitter.

If northern towns want to level up, they will also have to ‘level up’ with the price of living in the south.

Good grief 🙄

This is the unfortunate side effect no one wants to talk about. The government neglect to mention the increase in house prices, rents, social amenity pricing and so on that happens when an area "levels up". Wages never keep pace though.

It's already being seen in cities such as Manchester etc.

There are less people up North so less money makes sense. My region got bugger all - and no it is not wealthy, London or the South East or Cornwall.