It is rare that Gordon Brown and George Osborne agree when it comes to economic policy. Students of 1990s politics might think the same of Tony Blair and John Major. But when all four former prime ministers and chancellors concede that widening regional inequality is a startling collective failure of British politics, it’s time for their successors to take note.

Despite all the promises of “levelling up”, Britain’s regions are further apart than ever. But we shouldn’t be surprised that the government hasn’t delivered: Britain has been failing at regional policy for more than 40 years. If anything we’ve gone backwards. The gap between southeast England and the rest of the UK is now wider than that between east and west Germany or northern and southern Italy — that’s not hyperbole but statistical fact.

What has gone wrong and what needs to change? To answer that we’ve interviewed 93 politicians and practitioners with six decades of experience. Cut through their differences over rail lines or elected mayors and there is broad agreement on the big picture: time and again, incoming administrations have announced a new regional policy and torn up what went before, only for the next set of leaders to switch approach again.

All this chop and change has been disastrous. New approaches on skills, transport or planning have never been given time to bed in before being uprooted. Alongside distrust of local government, inadequate infrastructure investment and a persistent bias in innovation spending towards the southeast, no wonder the UK has continued to grow apart.

The good news is that these two generations of past politicians are now urging the present one to learn from their mistakes. Regional inequality matters more for politics than it has for a century. We have a new cadre of mayors and devolved administrations giving central government the confidence it needs to let go. With sustained backing from No 10 and the Treasury, change is possible.

What we need is a cross-party plan that our leaders can stick to. It won’t be easy. There will be tough debates about how we pay for it, and how we prevent new inequalities opening up between towns and cities, or city-regions and the countryside.

But our unprecedented set of candid interviews should be a wake-up call for Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. We have an opportunity to build a lasting consensus that can weather political change and make our economy grow faster and more fairly across all regions. Are our leaders brave and far-sighted enough to seize it?

Ed Balls is a former cabinet minister; Dan Turner is policy adviser to the South Yorkshire mayor. All 93 interviews, plus summary, can be found at sites.harvard.edu/uk-regional-growth/

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East Devon Watch

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23 Oct 2023

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Torquay seafront set to undergo massive transformation

“The project has been made possible after the council secured £21.9million of Town Deal Funding from the government, and it is about to announce the ‘household’ name of the development partner who will help to spend it….

…Business owners have been given a first look at the detailed proposals.”

Is this the latest in a sequence of seafront regeneration projects insufficiently thought through to endure?

Owl recalls something called “living coasts”, the abandoned Torquay aquarium project opened in 2003 but closed in 2020. Living Coasts was built on the site of the Coral Island Leisure Complex which closed in 1977. Coral Island itself replaced the Victorian coastal attraction called the Marine Spa, which opened in the 1800s.

Guy Henderson www.devonlive.com

A new statue of Agatha Christie will provide the finishing touch to a £4million transformation of Torquay harbourside. The statue, currently being created by artist Elisabeth Hadley, will show the Torquay-born Queen of Crime overlooking her beloved harbour as part of a development Torbay Council calls ‘momentous.’

Business owners have been given a first look at the detailed proposals, at a presentation attended by deputy council leader Chris Lewis (Con, Preston).

Work will begin almost immediately, and by this time next year the Strand will be home to a wide pedestrian boulevard, with buses banished and traffic squeezed into a single carriageway rather than the existing double.

“The whole place will be transformed,” said Cllr Lewis. “This has been on the cards for a long time, and it will make the area down by the harbour a really attractive place for residents, businesses and holidaymakers.”

Montel Civil Engineering will carry out the work in four phases, and Torbay Council is warning that the busy Strand which runs along the front of the former debenhams building will have to be closed completely for eight weeks next spring. It says disruption will be reduced as much as possible.

Cllr Lewis went on: “It is going to create a real promenade going along to the harbour. The whole of this part of Torquay is going to be regenerated and it will be a fantastic place to visit. We’ve got the money, we’ve got the partner, now we just need to get on with the job.”

Vince Flower, Chair of Torquay Town Deal Board said; “As a board we’ve been committed to driving forward change in Torquay. Work starting on this project is a significant milestone in delivering the Town Investment Plan – which ultimately is about creating a town centre that we can all be proud of and is fit for the future. Once this project is completed it is going to deliver a range of benefits to residents, visitors, and businesses.”

The project which has been made possible after the council secured £21.9million of Town Deal Funding from the government, and it is about to announce the ‘household’ name of the development partner who will help to spend it.

The phases of the work are:

Phase 1 – November to December 2023

Traffic reduced to a single lane running in both directions along the Strand.

Removal and re-construction of the central islands. This includes the removal of all traffic lights and pedestrian crossings.

Relocation of taxi ranks, bus stops, and temporary bus stops being introduced.

Contractor site compound set up on the footway outside of the Pavilion.

Phase 2 – January to May 2024

The Strand will be reduced to a single lane of traffic, traffic management measures will be in operation at the Torwood Street, Victoria Parade, and Strand junctions.

Phase 3 – May to July 2024

Full closure of the Strand to all traffic for approximately 8-weeks. Diversionary routes will be in place. During this phase the biggest changes to the road layout will be made.

Phase 4 – July to August 2024

Road closure will be lifted, and traffic will be able to pass through the Strand using the new layout.

Cary Parade will be reduced to a single lane running in both directions.

Phase 5 – September 2024

Final surfacing and finishing works including the installation of the new tribute to Agatha Christie.

Throughout all phases of work there will be access to the harbour, Victoria Parade, Fleet Walk (for permitted vehicles), and Fleet Walk car park. Pedestrian walkways and safe crossing points will also be provided. Businesses and car parks in and around the area remain open.

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East Devon Watch

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23 Oct 2023

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‘Breathtaking’ HS2 failure slammed after whistleblowers allege cover up

The government is facing fresh political backlash over HS2’s “staggering failure” amid whistleblower accusations of a multi-billion pound cover up.

Guy Taylor, Jessica Frank-Keyes www.cityam.com

Explosive new allegations published in the Sunday Times say senior executives at HS2 Ltd, the company charged with building the high speed line, shredded documents and used misleading projections to ensure money kept flowing into the project.

Whistleblowers claim they were told by bosses to lie about the project’s cost and were sacked after speaking out. They say parliament was not informed of the real cost of HS2 for years, all while voting on laws that approved its construction.

Louise Haigh, shadow transport secretary, told City A.M.: “These are serious allegations that make the Conservatives’ breathtaking lack of oversight of HS2 all the more shocking.”

“As chief secretary, chancellor and now as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak failed to meet with HS2 [Ltd] once as the cost to the taxpayer soared.”

“Taxpayers are paying the price for this staggering failure. This is a government with no direction, no plan and no regard for taxpayers’ money.”

HS2’s internal fraud unit is now investigating allegations of a cover up. HS2 Ltd vehemently denies the accusations published by the Sunday Times.

Liberal Democrat treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP told City A.M. “the Conservative government allowed costs to spiral out of control on HS2, and these latest revelations raise questions about what they knew and when.”

“It is vital that an independent inquiry gets to the bottom of these allegations – including whether Conservative ministers misled Parliament over costs.

Former HS2 analyst Stephen Cresswell told the Sunday Times he repeatedly attempted to alert ministers, the National Audit Office and HS2’s fraud department over cost issues but was told to “concentrate on something else”.

Another source told the paper her phone was confiscated and she was pressured into handing over private messages after being seen with a whistleblower. She said she was eventually sacked.

Doug Thornton, who directed HS2’s land and property department, said his boss became “aggressive and argumentative” when he planned to raise concerns at a board meeting. He was later sacked just 11 minutes after reporting a grievance, the report said.

Copies of a 2015 Deloitte report investigating costs associated with buying or compensating property owners near the route were shredded, according to whistleblower colonel Andrew Bruce.

A spokesperson for HS2 Ltd told City A.M. the “allegations are simply untrue.”

“The claims made by Bruce and Thornton, which have been covered by the media on multiple occasions, were put under intense scrutiny by the National Audit Office. Its report published five years ago found nothing untoward. All land and property costs are in line with the published budget.”

“HS2 Ltd’s work is subject to extensive scrutiny including being audited annually by the National Audit Office.”

The fresh allegations come after Rishi Sunak axed the Manchester leg of the project amid spiralling costs.

A total budget of £32bn, allocated in 2012, has soared to upwards of £71bn, and some projections take the total figure to over £100bn.

James Watkins, head of policy and public impact at London Chamber of Commerce and Industry said: “The latest alleged revelations around HS2 funding and financial conduct over the years needs to be taken very seriously. We expect the Department for Transport (DfT) to make a thorough investigation so that levelling up of all areas of the UK could take place smoothly. “

“A project such as HS2 requires proper governance and oversight. All of us must have access to a super-fast, convenient transport system to commute to the UK’s financial hubs while businesses should not have to think twice about capacity and skills issues during recruitment.”

A spokesperson for the DfT said: “The government and its public bodies takes such claims seriously and will ensure they are thoroughly investigated.”

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23 Oct 2023

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Rising homelessness could bankrupt seaside town

Councils across England spent more than ever tackling homelessness in 2022, official data released last week showed. BBC News has been to Hastings in East Sussex where hundreds of families are in temporary accommodation – a situation the local council says could push it into bankruptcy.

www.bbc.com

The Grumpy Café may not sound like the friendliest place to grab a coffee but inside the large, warm meeting place in the centre of Hastings, the atmosphere is anything but crotchety.

“My children call me the grumpy cook, and I thought, ‘I like that,'” says owner Barry Ashley.

The not-for-profit café is busy most mornings, as locals pop in for coffee and cake, or a more substantial cooked breakfast. The money made is used to help locals with ever-increasing needs, particularly homelessness.

Every evening Mr Ashley, 60, cooks meals for families in temporary accommodation who don’t have cooking facilities in their rooms: “It breaks my heart to see the conditions they’re living in. It’s really heartbreaking.”

It is an issue close to his heart as half of the Grumpy Cook’s eight staff are in temporary accommodation – a home provided by a local authority, often in the private rented sector, supposedly for a short period, but often for years.

Sharing a bed

Barista Keira Boorman has been living in a one-bed flat since her 19-month-old daughter was born, and it’s a squeeze: “She can’t have her own bed because there’s not enough room. She spreads herself across the bed, moving constantly. I don’t get much sleep.”

The 19-year-old became homeless after she was no longer able to live with her mother. Despite working at the Grumpy Cook, she has little hope of finding a place to call her own.

“Most two-bed flats are around £950 a month and making that is nearly impossible as someone who doesn’t have a silly amount of savings or earnings.” she says.

“I don’t have a guarantor either. They’ll give me a viewing, but then pass it [the flat] on to to someone else.”

Bankruptcy looming

It’s a familiar tale throughout Hastings, a fading seaside resort, among the poorest towns in England.

More than 500 local families cannot afford a home and are in need of temporary accommodation, a situation that could push Hastings Borough Council into bankruptcy. This small district council will spend £5.6m housing them this financial year, a quarter of its entire budget.

House prices have almost doubled in Hastings over the past decade, one of the largest increases in England. At the same time, private rents have soared and the Local Housing Allowance, the maximum amount of housing benefit tenants can receive, has been frozen by ministers since 2020.

“We didn’t have a single two-bedroom flat advertised at local housing allowance rates last year,” says Chris Hancock, director of housing at Hastings Borough Council. “There is a strong risk this could bankrupt the council. We cannot make our budget stack up if we continue to have to spend this amount of money on temporary accommodation.”

The council is spending £11m buying properties to use as temporary accommodation, reducing its need to pay the ever-rising costs private providers are able to charge. Adding to the problem are the 900 properties available for short-term let, on sites such as Airbnb.

There is a bitter irony to the situation Hastings finds itself in. A decade ago, London councils were moving their homeless families to the town, as accommodation there was both available and affordable.

Figures released by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities last week show councils in England spent a record amount of money last year tackling homelessness.

It shows at least £2.4bn was spent tackling the problem in 2022/23. More than £1.7bn of that was used to pay for temporary accommodation.

The data also revealed:

Overall spending on homelessness increased by 10.5% since 2021/22
For those council areas that reported data for both this year and last, costs have increased in 192 of 232 areas
The biggest increase was in Liverpool, where the cost of tackling homelessness increased by 341% in one year, to £17.2m
Costs in Warrington increased by 210% while in councils Wolverhampton and Darlington saw their costs double

Back in the kitchen of the Grumpy Cook café, Nicola Skinner is helping Barry Ashley cook sausage and mash. The 33-year-old, her partner and their four children were made homeless in April when her landlord decided to sell the property.

The family consider themselves lucky, as the temporary accommodation they’ve been placed in allows their children to stay at the same schools. However, Ms Skinner knows the council could move them on at any point and fears they won’t find anywhere affordable to rent.

“A few of them [letting agents] want incomes of 30 times the monthly rent, which is impossible to reach in Hastings,” he says. “Our town is too poor to reach the prices they’re trying to charge.”

Seaton Hospital: have your say on Friday 3 November

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning October

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Regional inequality in Britain is worse than ever

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Torquay seafront set to undergo massive transformation

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‘Breathtaking’ HS2 failure slammed after whistleblowers allege cover up

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Rising homelessness could bankrupt seaside town

Sharing a bed

Bankruptcy looming

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