The Party is about to choose its next leader. As we go through this process – and there is an understandable desire to move swiftly – let’s think about one of the big issues which the outgoing PM correctly described as the defining mission of his Government: Levelling Up.
I welcome the return of Greg Clark as Levelling Up secretary and look forward to pressing ahead with him, building on the work we have already done here in the West Midlands.
And press ahead we must. I want to use this column to explain why the next Prime Minister must fully embrace the challenges and opportunities of Levelling Up – and recognise the importance of further devolving powers to the regions to make it happen. I’ll focus on one core area – skills – to illustrate just how that can work.
Taking powers back from Westminster to the regions predates the concept of levelling up. My own post as West Midlands Mayor was born from negotiations under David Cameron and was delivered under Theresa May, while Levelling Up has been an animating principle of Conservative Party thinking since 2019. However, it is now clear that Levelling Up and devolution fit together hand-in-glove, with local decision-making providing the knowledge to deliver tangible results.
Indeed, the two concepts are now developing in tandem. The Levelling Up White Paper was published this year followed by the draft Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, while the West Midlands has been named as one of two areas chosen to negotiate a trailblazing devolution deal with Government.
‘Trailblazing’ means that we will be able to push for new powers and funding – for levers that will give us unprecedented ability to shape our economic prospects and to take our future into our own hands. This, surely, should be intrinsic to the Levelling Up message.
After all, those new powers and funding can drive forward economic growth and extend opportunity to people here who for too long have been denied it. As developments since the publication of the White Paper have shown, securing growth is more critical than ever – facing as we do a cost of living crunch in the present and a deep productivity challenge in the longer term.
In skills, we have already benefited from significant devolution. It was one of the core responsibilities that we sought in our first devo deal, and we secured far greater powers here in the second devo agreement. Most importantly, we took on responsibility of the £130m Adult Education Budget (AEB) for the region.
What did we do with it? We refocused the AEB to put a greater emphasis on getting more people into jobs, developing higher-level and higher-quality skills, and in shifting provision to be more responsive to employer needs. Before we took on AEB we had over 400 providers delivering a gamut of courses – too many of which were low value add. We’ve now got around 50 providers who work in a joined up way with our colleges and councils. Then there is Colleges West Midlands, a pathbreaking partnership which unites providers to plan together for their long term strategic needs. This is the kind of joined-up, local thinking that can deliver Levelling Up.
The evidence of progress has been clear. At the end of 2018 only 48.5% of our people had NVQ Level 3+. By the end of last year – even with the pandemic’s toll – that figure hit 54.9%. We've had 9,231 people pass through our cutting edge courses on electric vehicle maintenance, cyber security, and coding, while our pioneering boot camps have now adopted nationally.
But our work is not done – it has been given greater urgency by the economic predicament we find ourselves in. Our skills investments have played their part in driving the wider region’s relatively strong labour market figures – 75.9% employed and 20.6% inactive, both ahead of the UK as a whole. But while we are getting more people into work, it is getting people into good jobs with career ladders where we still have so much further to go.
It's our job to support the private sector – to give them the workforce they need and persuade them to invest in the region, but we will need new tools in skills to do this. What do we need? Well, the first of these tools would be to have a leading role in an enhanced Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), which rightly centres the needs of employers when it comes to skilling up our people. We want the responsibility to deliver an integrated, regional skills response to those needs.
Right now, we commission post-19 skills provision. Through an enhanced LSIP, we could be empowered to lead new provision across 16-19 technical skills and oversee capital investment through the Skills Development Fund. We want to grow apprenticeships through managing the West Midlands’ share of the national Traineeship budget, and we also want to take on the co-ordination of careers activity and responsibility for the targeting of National Careers Service delivery here, to help young people make the best choices for themselves.
Yes, taking on these new responsibilities will result in higher productivity figures, higher average wages and lower unemployment. But they will also extend opportunity to the hardest to reach, delivering Levelling Up at street level. Levelling Up isn’t just about investing in an area, in buildings and transport systems. It’s about investing in individuals.
Of course, skills form just part of our ambitions in the ‘trailblazer’ devo deal negotiations. We also want more control over housing and regeneration, and in our signature specialty of brownfield regeneration, where we will be proposing ‘Levelling Up investment zones’. On net zero, perhaps the single biggest ask we have is to have the funding Government has allocated for retrofit devolved to us.
Whoever the next occupant of Number 10 is, Levelling Up will remain mission critical. I believe a full commitment to Levelling Up should be a non-negotiable requirement of the next Prime Minister, and I cannot support anyone who does not intend to lean into the challenge we face.
Levelling Up is a signature ambition of 21st Century Conservatives, while the framework of devolved power has been built by Conservative administrations – and provides the perfect conduit to deliver that ambition. Our next Prime Minister must see the value of devolution, and of extending the decision-making powers of the regions, to deliver real change and renewal.