What Labour wants to see from the government’s “levelling up” white paper

I joined our party because I wanted to tackle the inequalities that I see in my community. I love my country but am frustrated when I see people in communities across our the country struggling to keep their heads above water, as bills, taxes and energy costs go up.

My story is shared by hundreds of thousands of people who have been Labour members over the last 122 years, seeking to create a more equal society. Today, the Tories have sought to capitalise on people’s sense that the settlement doesn’t work for them, through the slogan of “levelling up”, though we still wait to see what this government thinks it really means.

As the government seeks to escape ‘partygate’, we do not have to wait much longer for that detail. The briefing we see in the media and beyond has given us a sense of what we may find. It’s likely to be more political structures, repackaged promises and one-off pots of money, rather than reliable investment in our communities, where even the winners funds are worse-off than they were before this government slashed their councils’ budgets.

We can do much better than that: we must match the ambition that people have for their own areas. The following is a flavour of what we want to see in the white paper.

Good jobs in our hometowns, so young people have choices and chances and don’t have to get out to get on in life. When Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy visited Grimsby last week, they heard again and again how young people have left their home to seek better opportunities elsewhere. Orsted’s East Coast Hub, which provides great jobs for 400 green energy workers, is a start. But towns like Grimsby need more than that, and can’t rely on getting lucky with similar facilities emerging nearby.

Refilled high streets, with new local businesses, services and spaces, driven by local plans – not just papering over the cracks. The Tories’ ambition for struggling town centres and high streets so far has been little more than hiding the underlying issues they have caused with aesthetic improvements. Meagre grants through levelling up funding like the Towns Fund, while welcome, don’t even come close to making up for what has been lost over the last decade.

Better connections to jobs, opportunities, our family and our friends through good transport, digital infrastructure and affordable housing that we have too often missed out on. Being able to take advantage of progress in your local area requires being able to access it, as easily as you could if you lived in a major city. In my city of Nottingham, we’ve got great pride in our transport system, where excellent tram and bus systems mean that not only the whole city, but surrounding areas and neighbours like Derby, Grantham and Mansfield are well-connected, for a good price and without long waits.

The power to take local decisions for ourselves – ending the system where we have to go cap-in-hand Westminster to do things we know will work for us. The government is proposing more politicians, but where’s the power that is really needed? Having worked in local government myself before becoming MP, I know first-hand just how dedicated local politicians are to improving their communities, and they have the knowledge to do so far better than we can from Whitehall. They just need the chance to do it.

Town centres that are safe and welcoming, not plagued by anti-social behaviour with criminals being let off and victims let down. Not only have cuts to local police forces under the Conservative government have led to more people feeling unsafe in their own areas, but they have also damaged the chances of attracting people and businesses to the area to contribute further.

The government was handed an opportunity to change the settlement that for too long has not worked for people. It has failed to rise to the challenge. Labour will support the industries of the future through our climate investment pledge, scrap and replace business rates, deliver our ambitious plans to make, buy and sell in Britain, and create 100,000 new start-up businesses to grow our economies and sustain our high streets. We will deliver a plan for a new Britain that delivers security, prosperity and respect across the country, matching the ambitions of the people in it.