The story of the 'Back the South West' campaign

Back in October 2016, the Western Morning News launched its 'Back the South West' campaign, just a few months after the Brexit process lumbered into inaction:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and Back The South West

It has regularly relaunched the campaign:
Futures Forum: Tech Nation >>> "'there's more to the South West than cream teas and cowpats'"

Today there was another relaunch - of something which talks about 'growth' and whose main photo is of a motorway heading into the sunny uplands: 

Forget Brexit - it's the day to #BackTheSouthWest

As Brexit turmoil continues to reign in the UK, we have seized to day to relaunch #BackTheSouthWest

By Hannah Finch
29 MAR 2019

The South West must #BackTheSouthWest

With indecision thwarting today’s Brexit deadline, we say there’s never been a better time for the South West to be crystal clear about its future. What should have been a momentous day for the UK has been scuppered by delay and division. Politics as we know it has been turned upside down and the country’s growth agenda is at a standstill.

While the Brexit debacle slides on, the Western Morning News - in partnership with Pennon Group and support from LiveWest and Womble Bond Dickinson - is set to seize the day to launch the second phase of the #BackTheSouthWest campaign.

Bill Martin, editor Western Morning News, said: “We could stand around waiting for someone, anyone, to tell us what’s going on with Brexit but the future prosperity of our region is too important for that. That’s why it’s so vital to press ahead with our ambitions for #BackTheSouthWest. Our priorities remain the same, we need a transport system, including a railway that is fit for the future. We need digital connectivity, quality housing, skilled jobs and the talented staff to fill them. Our aim is to ensure that the South West backs itself to show Westminster that we are more than ready for investment.”

The #BackTheSouthWest campaign was first launched in August 2016 in response to the Brexit referendum vote. At the inaugural Growth Summit launch event, Sajid Javid, the then secretary of state for communities and local government said there has to be a credible figurehead for economic growth for the Government to be prepared to hand over powers for investment, transport and infrastructure to the region. And he called for the region to have one voice on its plans for economic prosperity.

The campaign quickly gathered momentum, garnering support from some of the region’s biggest businesses, academics and political leaders.

We presented the South West Growth Charter to Downing Street, secured a debate at Westminster and formed a South West Leaders Forum with representatives from across all sectors of the business community.

A second Growth Summit held in 2017 harnessed widespread support for unity in a region that leads the way in the aerospace and creative industries.

Now it is a question of pulling together that enthusiasm and taking that message to the rest of the country and the world.

But despite our efforts, our economy has been held back by infrastructure underspend. Five years on from the Dawlish rail disaster, trains are still being cancelled during bad weather. The M5 remains our only major route into the region and the A303 upgrades have yet to begin. But we have seen progress in the shape of an £80million pledge for rail resilience works at Dawlish and £83million for improvements to the North Devon Link Road.

And crucially, we have seen regeneration throughout the region. From the enlarged Tate St Ives, new hotel plans in Torquay or further investment in Exeter’s city centre, we are seeing great changes that are designed to boost visitor numbers and the viability of our must populated areas.

The new Messenger statue in Plymouth is a bold statement of intent for the city about its creative heritage and vision for the future.

Change happens in stages and as a region, we need the backing to make those changes a future reality.

In February, Sarah Heald, Pennon’s Director of Corporate Affairs & Investor Relations joined South West MPs and Heart of the South West LEP chief Executive David Ralph to take our case to Government.

Under Sir Gary Streeter, MP for South West Devon, MPs from across the region, from Cheltenham to the Isles of Scilly, came together to call on the Government to invest in the Great South West. MPs called on the Government to fund transport improvements, including dualling of the A303 from Ilminster to Honiton, and works to improve capacity on the M5 from Taunton to Bristol.

In closing, Members highlighted the importance of South West MPs joining together to ensure the region receives its fair share of funding, and if we can just get the infrastructure right, the South West’s best is yet to come.

Minister for Local Growth, Jake Berry MP, said: “This is the year of regional growth, and the South West must be at the heart of it.”

As we get set to launch this latest phase of the #BackTheSouthWest campaign, the Western Morning News says: “We could not agree more.”

Forget Brexit - it's the day to #BackTheSouthWest - Devon Live
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"For too long wealth and power has been concentrated in our cities. We need a political economy of everyday life."

There has been a lot of talk of late on the importance of our towns:
Futures Forum: 'Is it time to pay attention to towns as distinct types of places - both as sweet spots for understanding political change, and as laboratories for social policy?'

A recent piece in the New Statesman looks at the decades-long neglect of our towns: 

For too long wealth and power has been concentrated in our cities

In rural areas, the urban hinterlands and ex-industrial and coastal towns a different society has taken shape – more equal but poorer.

BY RACHEL REEVES 20 MARCH 2019

John Gray rightly argued in these pages last week that there is no going back to the world as it was. Nor would many desire it. The Brexit vote was a decisive rejection of the status quo, and politicians’ response has so far been inadequate. Whatever happens after the resolution of the Brexit process, we need a radical transformation of Britain’s economic settlement.

The origins of our political crisis lie in the liberal market settlement of the last four decades. Globalisation increased trade, brought down prices and raised millions out of poverty, but globalisation also eroded national sovereignty and democracy. The financial sector, followed by big tech, became a law unto themselves. Britain went further than others with this liberalisation. Politics became technocratic and our democracy failed to represent those experiencing the negative impacts of globalisation. The consequence has been a crisis of Britain’s constitutional order.

Britain is divided by geography and class. In the globally connected, deeply unequal metropolitan cities the asset-rich elite and the professional classes have taken the lion’s share of wealth, jobs, and political and economic power. In rural areas, the urban hinterlands and ex-industrial and coastal towns a different society has taken shape – more equal but poorer.

Here, the loss of industrial work has led to the destruction of the labour interest and its collective political power and identity. The growth in low-paid, low-skill and temporary jobs has created a precarious society. The human cost has been higher levels of chronic illness, loneliness and social isolation. In the EU referendum the majority voted against the political establishment, accusing it of ignoring their concerns and failing to safeguard national sovereignty.

Centre-left politics has not grasped the nature of this crisis. We have neglected or shown contempt for the things that matter to people. We have failed to rethink our political economy and the gains of right-wing populism have been the consequence. The safeguarding of our democracy and prosperity depends upon our ability to unite our national political community. It will require fundamental reform of our economy that focuses on the everyday life of work, family and the places people live.

Past governments have too readily accepted a model reliant on the globally mobile, financially extractive parts of the economy. We focus too much on high-growth industries and too little on where most people work – the everyday economy, which is made up of the private, public and social sectors in every region whose services and goods sustain our daily lives.

It is the social foundation of our country, sustained by the hard work of people who are frequently under-appreciated. Without them our schools, nurseries, hospitals, care homes, warehouses, food processing centres, supermarkets, hotels, cafés and restaurants would shut down. Our public service infrastructure would collapse.

Outside London and the south-east no region has yet fully recovered from the Great Recession. And yet policy concentrates on the cities as engines of growth and on the property development, technology and trading sectors. It neglects the middle- and low-paid and the civic infrastructure required to develop research and innovation across the whole economy. And it tends to exclude rural areas and towns from the wealth-creating activity it is promoting.

The correct response to the 2008 crisis and to the 2016 referendum would have been to prioritise the social and economic problems impacting these areas. Communities are at the core of reversing economic decline but we patronise them with a command-and-control approach. Effective devolution demands a radical change in how central government works.

Deindustrialised and cut-off places suffer economic disadvantage but retain strong social bonds. Everyday economics builds upon these relationships to create new forms of economic activity. It involves breaking up unaccountable concentrations of power, and a transfer of rights and powers to ordinary people, workers and their communities. It means guaranteeing universal basic infrastructure across the country and building up locally owned assets.

Businesses have become untethered from responsibilities beyond those owed to shareholders. We need reform of corporate governance to create grounded firms, responsive to their workforce and to the communities in which they operate. Central and local government can use their contracting powers to implement a form of social licensing. And government must break up monopolies and cartels, such as those in energy, house building and tech, which undermine our democracy and economy.

In the decades of the Industrial Revolution, Labour built its political power around the everyday economy of work, clean water, utilities, housing, education, and social services. It grew its roots in local places protecting working people, their neighbourhoods and their family life. We once again need a political economy of everyday life.


Rachel Reeves is a Labour MP for Leeds West and author of “Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics” (IB Tauris)

For too long wealth and power has been concentrated in our cities - New Stateman
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Brexit: and fly-over Britain > "Brexit will compound the disadvantage of the UK’s small towns and its regions"

There is an uncomfortable correlation between climate scepticism and populism, in both the States and the UK:
Futures Forum: Climate change: Brexit and Clexit

The 'left-behind' areas of the UK which largely voted for Brexit will be the ones who will be hardest hit:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and austerity
Futures Forum: Brexit: and leaving behind the left-behind

And this prognosis has been repeated many times:
“The Midlands and the North of England are more exposed to Brexit than any other region in Europe” | CityMetric (Feb 2018)
Places that voted leave are going to be hit harder after Brexit | Metro News (July 2018)
Every Brexit option will make Britain poorer, government admits | Daily Mail Online (Nov 2018)

But, then, the UK, like France where there's been a spot of protest of late, is a very centralised state:
Futures Forum: The death of local democracy
Futures Forum: The assault on Local Government: The Strange Death of Municipal England:

The regions are not going to do very well, then, from Brexit:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and another key policy area gets sidelined > local government funding
Futures Forum: Brexit: and local authorities anticipating "billions in lost funding and soaring poverty"
Futures Forum: Brexit: and the failures of 'localism'
Futures Forum: Brexit: and 'London ignoring local communities still further, particularly in the South-West'

As anticipated in this piece from the latest New European: 

Little respite for fly-over Britain

PUBLISHED: 07:00 18 January 2019

John Kampfner

FLOWN OVER: Cardiff was a Remain stronghold, voting 60% to stay in 2016 yet the areas beyond the city were Pro-Leave. Photo by David Goddard/Getty Images

Brexit will do nothing for the overlooked parts of the UK, says JOHN KAMPFNER. Instead, it will hurt them the most.

In late summer 2016 I was in St Andrew’s House, the headquarters of the Scottish government. I was small-talking with a cabinet member who had asked me if I had taken the train or plane up from London to Edinburgh.

I had flown, I said, expecting an eco-admonition. Instead the minister chuckled. “Perhaps we should build an air bridge.” Gallows humour indeed. A bit like folk from New York and LA talking about ‘fly-over country’, denoting the rednecks in between the coasts who had voted for Trump.

London versus the rest is a familiar line of political combat that both sides have rehearsed ad infinitum since the EU referendum. It is part true, part mistaken.

In my previous job, running the umbrella body for the UK’s creative industries, I made a point of never spending every day in any one week at our London office. I lost count of the number of train journeys I took to Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff and all the other tier one cities – plus the odd flight to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

By the end, I think I could navigate all the city centres without a map. Big deal, you might say: yet I wonder how many Londoners really do get out to the other British cities (many would find Paris or Barcelona more familiar).

The reverse journey is done all the time. CEOs from Newcastle are all too familiar with the capital. They have to come, because it is there that the power resides. Not vice versa, apart from the odd foray, ‘to show willing’.

Getting to and from London is rarely a problem. Getting between cities, particularly in the north, is invariably a nightmare. You could walk from Liverpool to Hull as quickly as the cattle trucks masquerading as trains (I exaggerate, slightly). Compare that with journeys from London to the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the government’s plans to connect them, via Milton Keynes, as part of a tech-science research hub.

The lack of infrastructure and investment in the north has been much pronounced on. The coalition government of 2010-2015 made it one of its big themes, with George Osborne (he of the leafy Cheshire constituency) its key driver. The Northern Powerhouse idea has, thanks to the preoccupations caused by Brexit and the demise of the Cameron administration, since withered on the vine.

The one legacy that has outlasted it is the advent of Metro Mayors. Figures such as Andy Burnham (Labour, Manchester) and Andy Street (Conservative, Birmingham) have become significant players, in a way that their equivalents in the United States and Germany have done for years.

Manchester is an example of what can be achieved with the right mix of public and private interventions. The area now has a critical mass big and attractive enough to entice a global workforce. Media City, on the outskirts of Salford, was driven by government, with the BBC at the helm.

Some in the north resent its success, seeing it as just a second monolith, like London, sucking in the talent from other places. That, in my view, is a hard argument to sustain and a bit of distraction. No country can thrive without major centres. Now Greater Manchester/Salford is Europe’s second largest centre for audio-visual (after London) and for other segments of the knowledge economy. At least it was, before Brexit started making the UK a less welcoming place to live and work.

Here lies the reason why the London versus the rest proposition does not tell the full story. The Brexit divide is less about one city or region, more about the culture divide between metropolitan Britain and the smaller towns and villages. The same story is being told pretty much everywhere in the western world, a similar set of resentments manifested in different protest votes.

All the big cities (with the exception of Birmingham, which is counted as a single area, taking in the outlying towns) voted to remain. Mindsets and lifestyles among flat white-drinking, hipster, shared office space urbanistas is pretty much indistinguishable, wherever you are in the world.

The bigger challenge is their relationship with the ‘other’. For example, Cardiff, with its gleaming bay area and tech hubs, voted impressively to Remain, whereas the rest of Wales opted angrily to Leave.

In October 2016 I was invited by the CEO of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, Roddy Gauld, to address the North West Development Network of cultural institutions. You should get out more, he quipped. I said I thought I had a pretty good record. Wasn’t he always bumping into me at events in Manchester? Yes, that’s my point, he said. Manchester is in a different world. It is 17 minutes, to be precise, by train from Manchester Victoria station to Bolton (according to the timetable, which admittedly never works), but economically it is in a different world.

One of the great paradoxes of the Brexit mess is that the areas which voted to leave are the ones which will suffer most.

“Brexit is likely to exacerbate the UK’s current inter-regional inequalities, which are already very high by international standards,” noted the research organisation, UK in a Changing Europe, only last month, in a report entitled The economic impact of Brexit on the UK, its regions, its cities and its sectors. It added: “This conclusion holds largely irrespective of the eventual form of Brexit.”

A number of other reports over the past year have highlighted the particular links, and therefore dependency and vulnerability, of many of the UK’s regions, with the European Union. Whereas London’s is predominantly a service-based economy, the Midlands is based in advanced engineering, the north east in automotive.

The British government, in its negotiations with Brussels, only went through the motions of supporting the geographical spread of the economy. Even though Brexit was supposed to address the concerns of voters in the regions, the word ‘regional’ appears only twice in the huge 585-page EU Withdrawal Agreement.

EU regional development and structural funds are supposed to be replaced by a UK-specific ‘shared prosperity fund’, but few people are anticipating that the financing lost in the various European schemes will be matched in full by the Treasury in Whitehall.

Cash-strapped local authorities will be expected to pitch in. Regional development agencies were replaced by much weaker institutions, Local Enterprise Partnerships, with no budget. Watch the money dry up even more.

“The reality of Brexit means people are looking at what’s coming next year with new eyes. If we’re not careful, there could be a sense of loss of confidence in the regional economy,” Burnham told a meeting of mayors and metro mayors in Bristol recently. He urged central government to give additional powers to the cities and regions, “freeing cities up to punch their way and make their own way, take control of their destiny”.

Even if further devolution does occur, both financially and politically the regions are a long way from having the muscle to tackle with problems that are exacerbated by Brexit. A report by the Local Government Association last July said Brexit was creating a “perfect storm” for rural and semi-rural communities, with unaffordable homes, poor connectivity, skills gaps and health inequalities threatening the future success and prosperity of those areas.

A second paradox is at play. Britain is one of the most centralised countries in the world, comparable most to France where so much political and economic clout begins and ends in Paris. If you lived in Munich or Chicago or Milan or Melbourne, you would still count yourself as a global city.

The EU was one means of solving these problems, with its focus on a Europe of the regions, pushing not just investment to the regions, but political power and cultural pride and distinctiveness too.

Brexit, if it is to happen, and whatever form it takes, will compound the disadvantage of the UK’s small towns and its regions.

That is an inconvenient truth that those MPs who purport to be representing their leave-voting constituents seek to hide.

Brexit will do nothing for the overlooked parts of the UK, says JOHN KAMPFNER. Instead, it will hurt them the most. | Latest Brexit news and top stories - The New European
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District and County Council announce spending plans in a new year of austerity for local government

The District Council have announced splurging on investment to 'create high-value jobs':
3 January 2019 - East Devon District Council agrees £1.1m Enterprise Zone investment in Exeter Science Park - East Devon

They have also announced further spending plans - and the press is obligingly highlighting the gimmicks:
East Devon Budget - Radio Exe
Robot lawnmowers, big screens to watch Wimbledon, and 24/7 parking charges could be coming to East Devon - Devon Live

Meanwhile, the County Council has put out a press release with a very positive spin on its latest spending:
Multi-million pound boost for Devon’s children’s services | News centre
Devon County Council targets children's services with budget increase | Latest Sidmouth and Ottery News - Sidmouth Herald

That's all good then.

But these press releases simply belie the reality that local government is desperately struggling with its finances, as shown through much of last year:
Councils “dangerously close to brink” as half plan to cut spending on vulnerable children — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (February)
County councils in crisis: three more named as showing signs of financial distress — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (March)
UK public finance: councils build a credit bubble | Financial Times (April)
By 2020 our local councils will be in utter financial chaos – but the government has chosen to do nothing | The Independent (June)
Don't blame councils for the harm done by government ideology | Joanne Fry | Society | The Guardian (August)
Austerity Has left councils At Breaking Point, Westminster Must Give Them The Money They Desperately Need - StephenKinnock.co.uk (September)
Budget a ‘sticking plaster’ rather than sustainable, public sector experts agree | Public Finance (October)
When council leaders petition No 10 to end austerity, things are bad | Polly Toynbee | Opinion | The Guardian (October)
Britain’s Austerity Has Officially Ended—and Yet It’s Still Going | The New Yorker (November)

In December there were calls to allow local government to tackle homelessness
Increasing use of temporary accommodation disruptive council chiefs say - LocalGov.co.uk - Your authority on UK local government

And at the beginning of the year, local government finance is still very much in the news - with a view from the Gulf:

UK councils are going bust

A decade of funding shortfalls has meant that local governments are almost bankrupt

Published: January 10, 2019 14:02

Mick O’Reilly, Special to Weekend Review

Thousands on demonstration protesting the Tory governments on going austerity cuts. -Image Credit: Supplied

As the crow flies, London is about 100 km away to the southeast, and Birmingham about 70 km away to the northwest, putting Northampton pretty much in the centre of England. And right now, the city of 215,000 and surrounding county that’s home to another 500,000 more, is pretty much at the centre of a funding crisis — one that is playing out across England and Wales, and is having a very dramatic and immediate effect on people’s lives, much more so than the political shenanigans under way at Westminster, and the UK’s place in Europe.

Northampton council is broke. Last February, it effectively went bankrupt.

No, it’s not a story of gross misspending of resources or a waste of money — like at least 35 other local government councils up and down the UK, it simply can’t raise enough funds to keep its services going, receives too little from the Westminster government in London, and can’t continue to provide the level of services required by law — looking after the elderly, fixing roads, contributing to policing, maintaining infrastructure, collecting rubbish, caring for children in crisis, keeping street lights turned on and books in libraries.

Across the UK, funding for local governments has fallen by at least 60 per cent since 2010, and by the time 2020 rolls around, there will be a staggering £21 billion (Dh96.7 billion) shortfall in funding for councils. Councils are the lowest levels of government, and can levy a tax on homes and charge fees for some services as well as collecting a nationally set tax on commercial properties and keeping a share of it. But for years, they depended on funds from Westminster — and since 2010, under the Conservative government’s policy of austerity, the councils’ funding has largely dried up.

Northamptonshire council just about has enough money to pay for basic mandatory services — everything else has stopped — and two outside commissioners have been appointed from London to oversee its activities and finances.

“I was a believer that we had to save money, but there had to be other ways than to slash and burn,” explains John Ekins, a Conservative councilor in Northamptonshire. “How did we get to where we are? What the hell has been going on?”

Slow effect

His frustration echoes across the country. One in 10 of the larger councils that have obligations to care for children and elderly people — about 35 councils in all — are in danger of exhausting their reserves within the next three years, according to the National Audit Office.

“There’s a slow-moving domino effect,” said Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Northamptonshire was the first flashing red light. East Sussex County Council, run by Conservatives, recently announced it would reduce services to the “legal minimum.” The Conservative-led county council in Somerset warned it might be facing bankruptcy too.

“UK local authorities are heavily reliant on central government grants — the Revenue Support Grant — which has historically accounted for 70-75 per cent of the income of local authorities,” explains Dr Philip Catney, a senior lecturer in politics at Keele University and a specialist on local government. That has been nearly halved between 2010 and 2018.

“At the same time, local authorities are finding that social care and other statutory duties costs are increasing without a sufficient match in the funding from central or local sources to match the need,” he tells the Weekend Review. “Such a dramatic deterioration in the financial position of local authorities with increased demand on services was always going to end up problematic. Local authorities have cut back significantly on the services they offer and have made numerous efficiency savings but there are not many more savings which can be made now.”

Obviously, raising the revenue support grant would be a start but also increases in the scope for local taxation rises would be helpful, Catney says, though such a move would almost certainly be unpopular with local people...

UK councils are going bust - Gulf News

And a view from local government professionals: 

No end to austerity for local government

02.01.19

Dr Mia Gray and Dr Anna Barford, both of the University of Cambridge, argue that the ghost of austerity continues to haunt the local government landscape as many councils struggle to offset often profound budget cuts – especially across England.

On 2 October, in the prime minister’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference, Theresa May heralded the end of austerity. She said that “after a decade of austerity, people need to know that their hard work has paid off.” Speaking in the past tense, May asserted: “Public sector workers had their wages frozen. Local services had to do more with less. And families felt the squeeze. Fixing our finances was necessary. There must be no return to the uncontrolled borrowing of the past. No undoing all the progress of the last eight years. No taking Britain back to square one. But the British people need to know that the end is in sight. And our message to them must be this: we get it.”

After this announcement, the chancellor’s spending plans were somewhat watered down, as he phrased it as “austerity is coming to an end” rather than being over. Of course, semantics aside, his spending plans, while offering a boost to social care spending, have not fundamentally altered austerity – and particularly not altered it for local government.

Our research on local government spending cuts in the UK offers a chance for local authorities to compare their position to others in the country. We used data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, calculated to enable comparisons between different local authority areas, and removed spending on the services which have changed so dramatically that comparison over this time period is impossible. We can see that while the cuts in the central government grant are proportional across the country, actual cuts to service spending vary enormously.

The map shows that although the central government’s funding cuts to local government are the major driver of reductions in spending on local government services, the actual spending cuts made by local government in 2009-10 to 2016-17 range from 46% to a mere 1.6%.

However, because the importance of the central government grant as a proportion of the total local government budget varies by such a large percentage, across-the-board austerity cuts in council spending have fallen most heavily on those local areas with the greatest need. This is only exacerbated by differences in the ability to raise revenue locally – through taxation and fees, the size of reserves, and the value of prime land and buildings...

No end to austerity for local government - public sector executive
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Devolution and social mobility > “If we are to bridge rural vs urban divide in social mobility, then government needs to ensure that counties have fair and sustainable funding in future, backed by the powers to genuinely make a difference.”

There has been a lot of talk of late on 'unfair' council funding - and how this is contributing to lack of social mobility:
Futures Forum: Devolution and social mobility > "Rural areas such as Devon, Kent, Cumbria and Durham, as well as coastal towns like Dorset and Norfolk, are all in the bottom 10 on the social mobility index."

The think tank Localis has been researching into this:
'All the country needs the same levers to support social mobility' | Opinion | Local Government Chronicle

And the County All-Party Parliamentary Group has just produced a report: 

“Unfair” council funding holding back social mobility in rural counties, MPs warn

October 31, 2018

An inquiry by a cross-party group of MPs has found that the least socially mobile areas in England are counties, and those areas are held back by an ‘outdated’ and ‘inequitable’ method of funding councils and the false perception they are affluent

The report outlines that councils in London receive £482 per head, whilst metropolitan boroughs and cities receive £351 per head, compared to £182 per person for public services in county areas.

At the same time, recent research by CCN has shown that councils face a £3.2bn funding gap between 2018-20, with these councils planning a further £1bn of worth of funding reductions next year to balance their books.

Jonathan Werran, chief executive of Localis, added: “Our research for the commission shows young people in London are pulling away from the rest of the country in opportunity and educational outcomes as soon as they enter school.

“Young people growing up in coastal and rural areas of England are then further constrained by poor skills infrastructure and in many cases weak prospects for finding good local jobs that pay decent wages.

“Devolution of the adult skills budgets to all strategic authorities, and a more ambitious reconfiguration of local political economies represent two main opportunities for boosting social mobility and delivering the promise of an inclusive growth that can help bridge today’s unacceptably wide urban-rural divide.”

“Unfair” council funding holding back social mobility in rural counties, MPs warn

The Herald takes up the story:

Report says Devon is one of the least socially mobile counties in the UK

07 November 2018

Matt Smart

Devon is one of the least socially mobile counties in the United Kingdom according to an inquiry by a cross-party group of MPs.

The report, Social Mobility in Counties, by the County All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and County Councils Network (CCN) says funding of councils including Devon is embedding a cycle of low social mobility.

MPs say the perception of counties as affluent areas has masked ‘deep-seated socio-economic challenges and deprivation’ in shire counties such as Devon.

The report says shire counties receive £182 in funding per head compared to £482 in London and puts Devon in the bottom 10 socially mobile areas.

The social mobility index was compiled by think-tank Localis.

Jonathan Werran, chief executive of Localis, said: “Our research for the commission shows young people in London are pulling away from the rest of the country in opportunity and educational outcomes as soon as they enter school.

“Young people growing up in coastal and rural areas of England are then further constrained by poor skills infrastructure and in many cases weak prospects for finding good local jobs that pay decent wages.”

MPs are calling for calling on the government to break outdated perceptions of shire counties as places with little social challenges and deliver a fairer share of funding so they can invest in raising social mobility, as well as new powers in skills and transport.

Peter Aldous MP, chairman of the County APPG, said: “For a long time now, the perception that counties are affluent and wealthy has meant they have been overlooked in terms of directing resource and policy towards improving social mobility.

“An outdated and inequitable method of funding local authorities has disproportionally channelled funding towards London and the major cities; holding back social mobility in county areas, and embedding a cycle of low life chances for residents. This is unfair.

“If we are to bridge rural vs urban divide in social mobility, then government needs to ensure that counties have fair and sustainable funding in future, backed by the powers to genuinely make a difference.”

Devon one of the least socially mobile counties in the UK according to new report | Honiton, Axminster and Seaton news - Midweek Herald
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Devolution and social mobility > "Rural areas such as Devon, Kent, Cumbria and Durham, as well as coastal towns like Dorset and Norfolk, are all in the bottom 10 on the social mobility index."

With Northern Irish and Scottish 'devolution' still dominating the news headlines, it's easy to forget that in England, several other devolution projects are underway.

In Buckinghamshire:
Another county goes unitary – despite local district council opposition | East Devon Watch
More on that unitary council “sunset clause” | East Devon Watch

In Devon:
Two unitary Devon areas – the case against weakens | East Devon Watch
Will Torbay (and its soon-to-be-unelected Mayor and Tory majority) be next to topple? | East Devon Watch

Although maybe not:
Futures Forum: Devon may soon be the only non-unitised county in the South West

Across Devon and Dorset:
Futures Forum: Support growing for a Jurassic National Park > although County Council not convinced

The only problem is that much of this is very much under the radar:
Futures Forum: Are we getting a “Greater Exeter” unitary council by stealth?
Futures Forum: The Greater Exeter Strategic Plan and 57,000 new houses
Futures Forum: The Greater South West Local Enterprise Partnership >>> of 'mis-speak' and the unrealistic expectations of growth

And that actually, in terms of 'local democracy', there does not seem to be much improvement:
Futures Forum: The death of local democracy

Moreover, will any realignment produce more cash?
Futures Forum: Of devolution and cash-starved councils

Or greater 'social mobility'?

"Rural areas such as Devon, Kent, Cumbria and Durham, as well as coastal towns like Dorset and Norfolk, are all in the bottom 10 on the social mobility index."

Social mobility of counties fettered by ‘outdated’ and unfair council funding system 

As reported by the head of the think tank Localis:

'All the country needs the same levers to support social mobility'

31 OCTOBER, 2018 

BY JONATHAN WERRAN

COMMENT


In our major cities, in our county towns, quiet villages and remote hamlets, the life chances of our young people are being shaped and affected by the unique characteristics of the places and environments which they inhabit.

Localis’ recent reports on local industrial strategy have identified those areas of England that are structurally the weakest, in many cases the small towns and rural places cut adrift of big cities.

But what does this mean for educational, employment and other opportunities for the next generation? And to what extent are their environments, and the strengths and weaknesses of place, supporting or hindering their prospects for fulfilling their life potential?

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Counties asked us to support their Social Mobility Commission – and we were happy to help provide the evidence base for its report which is published today.

Our analysis of key social mobility indicators at ‘strategic authority’ level across county, unitary and city region areas highlighted just how much London and the other city regions enjoy higher levels of social mobility.

The capital’s economy serves as a mammoth ‘southern powerhouse’ raising levels of social mobility around the north, south and north east of London – extending into the home counties, Surrey, Hertfordshire and Essex and also into western London, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.

We also confirmed the harsh reality of coastal and rural malaise. County Durham, Devon and Cumbria landed in the bottom third. Elsewhere parts of England with significant coastlines, among them Cornwall Dorset, East Sussex Kent and Norfolk, also lagged in the bottom ten of our social mobility index.

As a policy prescription, it is to be hoped that the devolution framework can reinvigorate action to give all parts of the country the same levers to support social mobility. We need now more than ever to see an urgent transfer of powers to accelerate public service reform, infrastructure investment and growth in local economies.

We could make a good start with the speedy handing across of the adult education budget to strategic authorities. Moving ahead, the post-Brexit shared prosperity fund should be receptive to bids that support social mobility.

Our analysis also brought home the extent to which the perception of counties as prosperous areas unbothered with socioeconomic problems masks a reality in which sizeable and worrying pockets of deprivation commonly exist. Naturally geography plays a role, and in these areas public service challenges are made even more onerous by poor transport links and digital connectivity.

The former calls for a ‘Total Transport’ solution. This would mean an integrated, cross-sector, cross boundary approach to passenger transport. It would also mean the introduction of a Freedom Pass-style schemes to help young people access education, employment and training opportunities.

Jonathan Werran, chief executive, Localis

'All the country needs the same levers to support social mobility' | Opinion | Local Government Chronicle

See also:
Localis - Home
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Brexit: and looking at how to fund farming

How to plan for future funding of farms?
Futures Forum: Brexit: and the most radical recasting of agricultural policy in 60 years
Futures Forum: Brexit: and Defra 'working on contingencies'

In independent review is promised:

1. ITV REPORT
 
2. 15 October 2018 at 11:59pm

Independent review of post-Brexit UK farm subsidies announced

The UK Government has announced a review of how agricultural funding is handed out across the UK (Julien Behal/PA)Photo: PA Archive/PA Images

The UK Government has announced an independent review of how farm funding is distributed across the UK following Brexit. The independent advisory panel will look at how subsidies are handed out to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from the UK’s exit from the EU until 2022 to ensure they are “fairly split”. The UK Government confirmed it will not use the Barnett formula alone as a basis for distributing farm funds post-2022.

The review will provide recommendations on how to distribute this cash once the UK has left the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (Cap), which controls agricultural subsidies.

These recommendations will be “informed by previous allocations of convergence funding” from the EU but “will not revisit these decisions or redistribute money that has already been committed”, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said in a statement.

The Scottish Government and Scottish farming organisations argue Scotland is owed the £190 million of EU convergence uplift payments to the UK between 2014-2020. The convergence cash was triggered due to the low rate of Cap payments given to Scottish hill farmers.

Aimed at distributing the subsidies more fairly based on average euros per hectare, the UK only qualified for the payments through Scotland, as England, Wales and Northern Ireland were all above the threshold.

By May 2018, the UK Government had allocated around £30 million of the uplift payments to Scotland, with the rest being distributed around the UK, leading to allegations the money has been “stolen” from Scotland’s farmers, which the UK Government denies.

Sorry, this content isn't available on your device.

We are committed to making sure that future funding is fairly allocated

Environment Secretary Michael Gove

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said the review will consider each country’s circumstances, including environmental, agricultural and socio-economic factors, including farm numbers and sizes.

Lord Bew, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, will lead the review and representatives from each of the devolved administrations will be represented on the panel.

Mr Gove said: “This important review, led by Lord Bew, will explore how we can deliver funding for farmers that supports the individual needs of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are committed to making sure that future funding is fairly allocated, and are also confirming that the Government won’t simply apply the Barnett formula to Defra’s funding beyond this parliament. Meanwhile our funding commitment up until the end of the Parliament gives more certainty for UK farmers than any other EU member state.”

Lord Bew said: “I’m very pleased to be chairing this review to explore an issue that is important to so many in the agriculture sector. I am anxious to consult widely and I look forward to getting started as soon as my fellow panel members have been appointed.”

A Scottish Government spokesman welcomed the review but warned: “This review must not simply be an exercise in playing for time in delivering funding to Scotland’s farmers which is rightfully theirs. The only reason the UK, as the Member State, qualified for an uplift is because of Scotland – therefore, the only fair funding solution for Scottish farmers and crofters is for them to receive the £160 million in convergence funding due to them. Anything less than this is completely unacceptable.”

Post Brexit farm subsidies under review - Rural Services Network
Independent review of post-Brexit UK farm subsidies announced - ITV News
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The Greater South West Local Enterprise Partnership >>> of 'mis-speak' and the unrealistic expectations of growth

It's all rather confusing as to what regional business set-ups we have:
Futures Forum: District Councils must be 'fully represented' on Local Enterprise Partnerships
Futures Forum: Can the Devon/Somerset Local Enterprise Partnership 'double' the regional economy in 18 years?
Futures Forum: The picture of 'devolution' in the South West gets murkier

There are the impressive headlines and 'big initiatives', though: 

Leaders call for a Great South West 'ministerial champion'

Steve Hindley, chairman of the Great South West partnership explains the next steps for the campaign

Hannah Finch
17 SEP 2018

Steve Hindley CBE DL has more reason than most to listen closely when the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, reveals his Autumn Statement later this year.

As chairman of the Great South West Partnership, Heart of the South West LEP and Midas, one of the region’s biggest construction firms, he has been at the forefront of a campaign for the South West to get the recognition it deserves with the man who hold the country’s purse strings.

Mr Hindley said: “I am hopeful of getting a mention, they do know that the South West exists,” he said.

Mr Hindley is at the forefront of the Great South West vision. Together with the #BackTheSouthWest campaign, spearheaded by Western Morning News and Pennon Group, it quickly gathered momentum after the first South West Growth Summit in October 2016 - just four months after the decision to vote leave in the Brexit referendum.

It gave rise to The South West Growth Charter, which outlined priorities for the region and was heard in parliament.




Since then, the Great South West committee has been formed.

Now, six months until Brexit actually happens in March, the alliance of business leaders, local authorities and higher education chiefs have officially launched its Great South West vision that aims to put the South West on the UK economic stage.

Mr Hindley said: “Having an identity is incredibly important. The Great South West is our equivalent of the Northern Powerhouse or the Midlands Engine. We have told our MPs that we want them to put the Great South West on the map at Westminster. The Great South West already has an economy twice the size of Greater Manchester’s and the West Midland’s yet we do not share the same level of investment.

“We have got Plymouth and Exeter and in terms of nuclear, we have the largest building project in Europe under way at Hinkley Point C.



“This is essentially us putting forward our business case and it is great news that we have got the business sector in the driving seat.”

The Great South West vision covers the geographic area covered by LEPs in Dorset, Heart of the South West in Devon and Somerset and Cornwall.

Leaders call for a Great South West 'ministerial champion' - Devon Live

But perhaps we need to look behind the 'great news' a little: 

LOCAL ENTERPRISE PARTNERSHIP – PARTNERSHIP: ARISE WESSEX! OR MAYBE NOT …!

17 September 2018

Below is a comment on an earlier post:

Greater South West Local Enterprise Partnership – partnership! | East Devon Watch

... reprinted here as it raises some interesting questions, raised by David Daniel, who so eloquently spoke about the unrealistic expectations of our LEPs growth strategy to a largely uninformed and disinterested majority of Conservative councillors at DCC recently:Watch EDA councillor Shaw and Budleigh resident David Daniel make most sense on LEP “strategy” | East Devon Watch

This now seems to be the THIRD such trial marriage of various south-west LEPs. None of them seem to be made in heaven ……….

“WESSEX here we come!

English devolution is a mess, whether it will evolve into anything sensible is uncertain.

A third of people living in England outside London live in one of England’s nine combined authorities, six being cities with directly elected mayors. These are corporate bodies formed of two or more local government areas to enable decision-making across boundaries on issues that extend beyond the interests of any one individual local authority, like strategic transport planning.

Our nearest is the West of England Combined Authority of: Bristol; North Somerset; Bath and North East Somerset; and South Gloucester. The Government has encouraged the creation of these structures in order to provide the economic scale needed for devolution. These are on the fast track.

County identities are medieval in origin but they continue to lurk in our consciences. We identify with them democratically and historically. The focus of the Coalition 2010 white paper that set devolution in progress was to create administrations based on economic functional areas rather than regions. This has set in train a conflict between perceived economic necessity and community identity and democracy. A few Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) followed county boundaries eg Cornwall and Scilly, and Dorset, but most did not. Some even overlapped.

Following on from the combined authorities, which are all centred on what one might describe as metropolitan areas, we are beginning to see the creation of new concepts by the combination of LEPs into “power” groupings such as the Council of the North, Midlands Engine, Oxbridge Corridor etc.

We now have the Great South West Partnership of: Heart of the South West (HotSW), Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, and Dorset LEPs. Or do we? The reason I add a question mark is because not very long ago (April to be exact) we had the Great South West Partnership comprising FOUR LEPs, including Swindon and Wiltshire “working together” to agree the next steps in implementing the recommendations of a report on Productivity. We were also told that GFirst (Gloucester) and West of England (Bristol) LEPs were also taking an active interest.

In his first interview on Somerset Live the new HotSW Chief Executive, David Ralph said “We’ve set a really big ambition about doubling the size of the economy in this area over the next 30 years.”
Everything you need to know about local enterprise partnerships - Somerset Live

Previously the target had been to double the economy in 20 years. When I asked for clarification I was told it was a mis-speak, not a change of policy to something slightly more realistic.

So who knows where we are going?”

Local Enterprise Partnership – Partnership: Arise Wessex! Or maybe not …! | East Devon Watch
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