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.

I don't think even the levelling up people knew what they were trying to achieve- hence the shit show.

I'm in the East - comparatively OK rural village though with poor transport and amenities. Getting anywhere takes too long because we have too many people for the road infrastructure and no alternative. Would love to see investment in the North instead of another science park near here accompanied by 3 giant housing estates.

Build the science park where there is space. Where people want good jobs and there are universities to grow talent. Don't squeeze them in next to the ones already there.

36 miles from West to East London.

Leeds, Macnchester, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Wakefield, are all
less than 36 miles for me.

We don’t even have trains never mind schmancy tubes and trams.

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

What an appalling post. Things like this make we wish we could have devolution for the north.

How would you fund that? Majority £ comes from SE

Yes there is a need to invest in transport in the north but the money just announced is £4bn and your plan would need a zero on the end of that - and take many years to come to fruition.

I mean, it's a statement of fact! If you make people more prosperous they tend to spend that money on housing which increases prices. And infrastructure investments produce (sometimes huge) uplifts in value for local landowners.

I have no idea how it would be funded. I just want to get away from everything London Centric. It feels like the Nkrth and South are 2 totally different nations.

This could be highly self defeating

You’d get away from the economic driver and lose out even more.

The SE funds a lot. I get it feels different but surely the answer isn’t more deprivation through closing off funds altogether

I would love to be devolved from the South. We could join Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

London and SE would do very well out of it

It is in the UK's interest to have a healthy and vibrant London economy - it contributes so much money to other areas of the country.

Feeling like the North and South are different nations is a really ridiculous and ignorant point of view in my opinion - very Tory spin 'North London Elite' etc. In actual fact, the problems facing Northerners affect Southerners too and not everyone is a banker on £150k plus bonus. Unemployment in my local area is above 8% and the line for the foodbank queues down the high street every Sunday.

The problem with that is London and the South aren’t synonymous.

No, I don’t want any further devolution or constitutional reform - look at what a mess Brexit created. Administratively alone it’s hardly worth it. What I would like is some leadership that is visionary, thinks long term and how we can make the best use of all parts of the country. We can’t pretend Devon could have the same economy that London does, for example - ain’t gonna happen.

There are plenty of poor people in the north, south and London, but the level of public investment in London dwarfs that in the rest of the country. (Look at things like public transport investment.)

I don’t agree that devolution is a bad idea. We could have Andy Burnham as PM.

It's higher per capita in NI, Scotland and Wales. Highest in England is London, yes.

Er, no... All dwarfed by London.

www.statista.com/statistics/1134495/transport-spending-per-head-in-the-uk/

Re the Richmondshire scheme.... its for Catterick. Its geographically close to Richmond, but its a million miles away in other ways. Its an Army garrison. Its basically barracks, schools, and houses, with a handful of shops and a cinema/Hotel complex built 8 years ago.

Its not the picturesque nearby towns/villages like Harrogate or Richmond full of millionaires etc.

Yes!

Although I stopped at the word 'levelling'... 😉

Lots of areas that are not north have hugely high levels of child poverty and food bank usage. This isn’t a north vs south it’s a rich vs poor.

London money buying houses in the “cheaper” yet connected areas make them look less poor. But I’ll use Peterborough as an example since it was mentioned by someone else before it’s getting a revamp on its train station a quick google points me to news articles saying that anywhere between 50-60% of children are in poverty in Peterborough. I wouldn’t say that’s up north it’s also having lots of executive houses being built, the average Peterborough resident won’t be the ones buying those 300-500k brand new houses near the train line which pushes up the “income” of the area.

@EricBartholomew - YABVU to describe all towns in the North as 'the Northern towns'.

You were talking about public investment as a whole though? In which case not 'dwarfing' at all.
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04033/

@luckylavender YABVU to not notice I meant as opposed to the northern cities

I think the idea that only the north has areas that are 'deprived' or rather shitty is ludicrous - have they looked at places like Shepton mallet or areas around Bristol or Plymouth or Cornwall etc. not only are they grim but not necessarily cheap either. Big difference is they aren't necessarily that 'ukip' minded either. I think a lot of political thought has gone into these decisions in areas they think they can bribe locals to keep them in power. If they were being sensible then the battery plant was at least an investment in business and jobs- but I suspect it's an area they think labour will gain anyway . Same with anything around Liverpool- it won't vote Tory