Developing the Regions: Policies to Level Up the Country Speech

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Amelia Lockhart
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Developing the Regions: Policies to Level Up the Country Speech

Post by Amelia Lockhart »

Developing the Regions: Policies to Level Up the Country, hosted by the University of Manchester

Amelia Lockhart, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Business, Transport and Social Mobility addressed an audience at the University of Manchester.

Ladies and gentleman,

I want to thank the University of Manchester for hosting tonight.

We are gathered today in the first industrial city in the world. Prosperity was woven through Manchester, as textile manufacturing and cotton processing boomed. Much of the modern world was born in those first few decades of the 19th Century, and in this city.

Over time in the UK, other cities and towns grew rapidly - finding their role in an innovative and changing economy. Places became rooted in, and defined by, industries: think Sheffield and steel, think Accrington and bricks, think coal and Wakefield, think Grimsby and fish.

It was much of the North and the Midlands that prospered from our rise as a manufacturing nation and, crucially, economic growth was spread widely in terms of geography.

But that did not last. Prior to 1997, we saw a reckless economic policy that hurt our economy, and abandoned our regions. Places like my own constituency of Grimsby saw their main industry collapse, and with it jobs and the local economy. Rather than ensuring all regions were supported in the transition to a new economy - and a new way of earning our keep in the world - they were forgotten about and forced into a period of decline. Unemployed skyrocketed, families suffered, and inequality dramatically widened. Boom and bust economics failed our regions.

The facts of regional inequalities impacts in so many ways and on all our lives. But as the Secretary of State responsible for improving our nation’s social mobility, it would be remiss not to focus on that. Life chances are too often determined by the place an individual is born in, while to be socially mobile - earning a higher wage, aspiring to work in certain industries - too often requires an individual to move away from home, from their family and from their community. Many may want to do that, but too many are also forced to do so. Regional inequality splits up too many families, forces too many individuals to make choices they don’t want, and restricts social mobility.

The Government has been clear that we must level up our nation, and ensure our regions play the fullest part in our national economic story. A reliance on one part of our country to provide prosperity is unsustainable. But this does not mean turning the economic clock back: change is necessary, change is often beneficial, and change is never avoidable. But it is about making change and transitions work for every family and every part of our country.

There is no reason why from our big cities to our smallest villages, our beautiful coasts to our rolling rural landscapes, and across our four regions of the United Kingdom prosperity cannot be shared and felt by all. Indeed, as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Business, Transport, and Social Mobility, it is my goal.

What does a plan to develop our regions and level up our country require?

Firstly, sound public finances. By prudently investing in our public services and economic development, we can place them on a sustainable basis and drive the necessary improvements. The less we pay in interest to service our debt, the more we can direct to our NHS, schools, and our economic support packages - all of which will help reduce the inequalities between regions. I am particularly delighted the Chancellor announced in his Budget that we are now paying less in interest than we are investing in our economy.

Indeed without fiscal responsibility, we cannot invest in our public services and economy in the long-term. Dramatically running down the surplus in one year may attract nice headlines, but it causes problems over the long-term - and these will harm the very public services that people claim to stand for, while also holding back the economy. If we return to a boom and bust approach to the public finances with swingeing cuts to taxes or our surplus, it is our most disadvantaged regions which are harmed the most.

Fiscal responsibility is the foundation for any plan that is serious about closing the gap between our regions, improving social mobility, and creating a more prosperous economy. Without it, we cannot succeed.

Secondly, with fiscal responsibility as our foundation, it is vital that we invest sensibly and prudently to close those gaps. As Secretary of State for Business, Transport, and Social Mobility, I want to deliver on the transport investment that helps our people get around our country and helps our regions get ahead.

If we cast our eye back a century and a half ago, the geographically distributed prosperity came because of significant progress on transport and connectivity. The nation of the railways knows this in its heart. Manchester is a clear example with first ever intercity railway, connecting this city with Liverpool, and the Manchester Shipping Canal, allowing the Port of Manchester to become one of the busiest ports in the country despite being 40 miles inland.

Transport and connectivity as an enabler of prosperity 100 years ago remains an enabler today. Indeed, in a time of increasing globalisation, the ability to travel around our country - and the world - is vital to our continuing economic growth in all regions.

Yet too often we make it difficult to travel around our country, particularly in the North and particularly by public transport. For many, trains are slow and inaccessible, buses are old and polluting. We have made steps to tackle this with 500 new trains and 25,000 new buses, and we will continue to deliver on this modernisation.

In the Budget, the Chancellor announced significant new investment in our roads and rail, as well as a New Stations Fund to provide new investment to communities across the UK, and build new stations with support from local government. By making commuting and trade easier, tackling the coverage gaps will help strengthen regional economies - and encourage more people to use public transport.

And over the course of this Parliament, I will continue to prioritise transport infrastructure investment as the means to close the gap and fire up regional economies. But what I will not do is promise billions of pounds to reverse cuts made decades ago without any due regard to what regional economies of today need. That would be reckless and irresponsible. As would a failure to invest anymore in our rail and roads despite promising to ‘unleash Britain’s potential’.

Thirdly, we will prioritise the interest and safety of the public and users of public transport - and use regulation where necessary to protect it. By applying the public interest to how we run, regulate, and manage our public transport system, we will help grow our regional economies. It will provide a safe, secure and trusted service to all parts of our country. Indeed, we cannot expect companies to trade using rail freight or commuters to use the railways or buses at the level required to grow our economy sustainably and equitably if we do not maximise the public interest and safety of our transport system. Investment would be wasted.

And I fear that we may see public concern about public transport grow if we do not take steps quickly to address it. In recent years, we have seen the consequences of a lack of regulation.

Indeed, it has been our regional economies that have been the site of some of the worst excesses caused by a lack of sensible regulation designed to promote the public and safety. Here in Manchester, a public inquiry has detailed how bus operators used “dirty tricks” to ‘herd’ passengers from the bus of one operator to another. A public transport system is not designed in the public interest or to protect the safety of the public if we have vehicles blocking bus stops in city-centre squares and inspectors of one company obstructing the doors of buses from another company. When the consequences of disrupting the centre of one of our major cities in the pursuit of profit and competition is being banned from running three routes in Manchester for just eight weeks, it is clear that something has to change.

While bus operators dangerously fight over passengers in the centre of our cities, they are failing to deliver the services to our rural areas that they require. We are making our villages car reliant, and anyone who cannot drive is unable to access services outside of their local community - exacerbating isolation and loneliness.

When unbridled competition has not worked and risks holding places back, we must have the courage to change course. So the Government will be introducing new regulations that make competition work, protect the public interest, ensure everyone can access buses, and end the predatory, dangerous practices instigated across too many places in our regions.

And we must not forget the terrible loss of life at the Hatfield rail crash just over a year ago. It is clear there have been significant failures on the part of the current system of operation and regulation. And I cannot, in good conscience, fail to take the necessary action where a company in charge of a significant part of our railway infrastructure fails to meet its obligations, and worse even neglects them with a terrible cost, yet receives public money and pays it in dividends to shareholders - despite claiming financial difficulties.

I will be taking the necessary steps over the next few days to protect the public interest and advance its safety. I am determined that there will be no barrier to the modernisation of the West Coast mainline, of which Manchester is part, which could be put at risk if we continue without taking the changes. There must also be a thorough review of how our railways operate, regarding the tracks and the train operators. We will not hesitate to make any necessary changes regarding ownership or competition if such changes are required to meet our previously committed to target of 50% more passengers on our trains in 10 years time. If we meet this target, we can connect our regional economies together and deliver growth.

Improving our regional economies - and closing the gap - will require the sustained commitment of this Government. It will require sound finance and fiscal responsibility; it will require infrastructure investment; and it will require public interest regulation of our public transport system. It will require so much more. But our Government is making the changes, getting stuff done, strengthening our policies, and innovating to ensure that the next century will be one of great prosperity for our regions.

Thank you.
Amelia Lockhart
Labour Party
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (2001 - )
MP for Great Grimsby (1992 - )

Deputy Prime Minister (2001 - )
Secretary of State for Business, Transport and Social Mobility (2001 - )


Secretary of State for Health (1999 - 2001)
Minister of State for Public Health (1997 - 1999)
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Marty
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Re: Developing the Regions: Policies to Level Up the Country Speech

Post by Marty »

This is exactly what I was looking for, but I don't really expect much else from Amelia. University audiences like it when you start with a thorough analysis of where we are and how we got there, and I felt you did that admirably. Crucially, however, you also did this in terms evocative enough to breach through to the wider public with the help of the journalists who are always lurking at the back of events like this one.

Take heed, people: this is how you take the theme of a speech invite and run with it. Get some crunchy policies, tie them into a coherent narrative that logically builds up, tailor it to the audience and there you go (or at least, that's one of the most obvious ways to do it).

More importantly, the press up north was listening, and it's definitely got very good press coverage in the regional press. The national press was also quite complimentary, with broadsheets like The Times giving your plans a favourable review. A good start for the DPM publicity and policy-wise.

+9 Labour, +1 XP for Amelia Lockhart.
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