Zakk Brown, Manchester and Salford Socialist Party
The government has put aside an additional £2.1 billion into its ‘Levelling Up Fund’ – a pittance of what working-class communities need. In order to secure some of this money, the government operates a bidding war, with constituencies vying for funding.
This process is inherently unequal. Without any form of local democratic say, securing funds is dependent on the whims of the Tory government. This was even echoed by West Midlands Tory mayor Andy Street, calling it “broken begging-bowl culture”.
Of the poorest 10% of local authorities, 17, almost half, haven’t received a single penny. Many other areas have received less than what they would have, had the fund been distributed equally across the UK.
North-west England has secured £355 million. However, areas like Rochdale, where 50% of children live in poverty in the Milkstone and Deeplish ward, won’t see any of it. Surprising no one, the biggest winners in this bidding war are Tory-held constituencies.
Michael Gove, levelling-up secretary, claimed that hated Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher is an inspiration for the policy. Some working-class communities and industries still haven’t recovered from Thatcherism.
Gove cited Thatcher’s London Docklands Development Corporation as an example, claiming that the “government created the environment, the private sector created the jobs”. However, east London gentrification has driven up the cost of housing, and forced many residents out.
The reliance on free markets to solve inequality is the tried and tested Tory method that has yet to succeed. We need devolution, but not to MPs or Tory mayors.
In their hands, funding will just be put into private sector hands, which won’t benefit workers. Real ‘devolution’ would give working-class communities a democratic say over what money is needed, and how it is used.
Labour councils – prepared to lead the fight against austerity, refusing to implement cuts, and demanding the funding that is needed – could force the Tories to cough up more than the insufficient levelling-up funds.
We need investment in council housing and not private housing companies; publicly owned transport services, and not privatised rail industries; and money put into public education and not privately run academies and private schools.
If Labour councils won’t implement the policies we need, we need workers’ candidates independent of Labour to stand against them.
