Levelling Up Cost Way Off The Mark

[FatticusInch]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61946037

So the biggest lie since ‘the cheque is in the post’ is going to cost billions more than the government thought?
Who knew?

[Zacs-Master]

You claim not to be denigrating the conservatives with your post ‘if I was looking to denigrate Conservatives I’d have posted this’ but then claim they are a failing government. I think you need to decide what the objective of your post actually is.
Anyway, your attempt has given me a bit of a chuckle on a dull Monday morning.

[Gromit]

// Professor Neil Lee of the London School of Economics commented that while he was "sympathetic to the basic idea", the Northern Powerhouse was "a vague and problematic concept". His assessment was that it had attracted new resources but was "geographically fuzzy with insufficient funding to achieve its unclear aims" //

Ditto ‘Levelling up’. Doomed to failure.

[Gromit]

Before we spend one penny on ‘Levelling up’, is there anyone who believes it will actually deliver anything ?

If not, it is a waste of time.

[FatticusInch]

Aw great, I like to keep others happy.
If that made you chuckle you’ll positively guffaw at what Patten says about Dorries.


Maybe I should have put both clips in a separate thread to highlight the current state of the Tory party?

[Gromit]

When we left the EU, people in the UK’s most deprived areas lost access to the EU’s European Structural and Investment Funds for skills, employment, local business and communities.
The Levelling up’s ‘Community Renewal Fund’, is just replacing some (not all) of the EU funding we have lost.
So no new money for poor areas, they now have to beg from a hostile Government instead of bidding from the EU.

Yep - is a sleight of hand con.

[Gromit]

In the four years before we left the EU, England was allocated roughly €10.6 billion, Wales €3 billion, Scotland €1.8 billion, Northern Ireland €741 million from the EU.

Levelling up has a budget of £4.8Billion.

The observant amongst you will spot a huge cut in money for investment in communities.

Instead of making things better, under funding will make things far far worse.

[Gromit]

The EU gave our communities €16Billon.
The Government are replacing that with £4.8Billion.

We no long pay EU membership fees, but the saving is being largely kept by the Government, rather than replace like for like funding.

So it is a real cut, and will result in levelling down, not up.

[youngmafbog]

Gromit, leave the keyboard alone for a bit.

[Gromit]

Umbrella,

Uncomfortable reading?

[Gromit]

I must have mistyped in YMB and it corrected to Umbrella :-)

[Ellipsis]

Just who do you expect to produce reports criticising the Government - government supporters? Sadly not, politics is too polarised for such honesty (and look at the reception that Boris's Tory critics get anyway).

The real issue with this report isn't who produced it, but whether it's true or not. "Government plans to 'level up' cities around the UK will cost billions more than thought". That certainly wouldn't surprise me, would it you?

[New Judge]

//The EU gave our communities €16Billon.//

No it didn't. The EU doesn't have any money. All it has is temporary custody of the funds provided by its four (recently reduced from five) contributing members. After they've raked the appropriate (not inconsiderable) percentage off the top for its "administrative fees" it doles what remains out as it sees fit, dictating what the funds must be spent on. It's rather like giving somebody £1,000, and being grateful that they give you £500 back, provided you spend it on whatever they say.

//The observant amongst you will spot a huge cut in money for investment in communities.//

Not quite. Those paying proper attention would note that the €15.9bn you mention of our money that was conditionally returned to be spent as directed was over four years (so roughly €4bn p.a.) whilst the £4.88bn "levelling up" budget (which is actually about €5.6bn) is for phase one of the levelling up programme only. So if you want to praise the observant, you must first establish what you're praising them for.

One question you might ask yourself is that, presumably, the EU's "European Structural and Investment Funds for skills, employment, local business and communities" benefitted all 28 member nations. Whilst the UK was among those members only 5 nations actually contributed any dosh. So where did the share that the other 23 nations got come from (answers on a postcard).

That aside, whatever way taxpayers' dosh is divvied up is now under the control of the UK government, which can be re-elected or thrown out as the electorate sees fit. And that was one of the main points of Brexit.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ The EU doesn't have any money’
Apart from the percentage they take off the top?

[ToraToraTora]

gromit: "We no long pay EU membership fees, but the saving is being largely kept by the Government, rather than replace like for like funding. " - NHS funding has increased £28.5bn since brexit and not only due to covid:
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-budget
strangely enough that actually is more than the RBIDers claim was "promised" on the side of a bus.

[Gromit]

// the £4.88bn "levelling up" budget is for phase one of the levelling up programme only. //

The £4.8Billon is funding for 2021/25, so roughly £1.2Billion a year compared to the £4Billion previously being spent.
The hype is about levelling up communities when they will only be getting a quarter of the previous investment.

[New Judge]

You don't know whether or not there is a direct comparison between the funds provided by the EU (which of course is UK taxpayers' money, reimbursed to spend as directed) and the "levelling up" budget. The "EU" money may well have been provided to fund things not being funded by the levelling up budget but funded by th eUK government in some other way.

In any case, it doesn't matter. The UK government decides how to spend the funds that were previously sent to Brussels and as I said, that was one of the main objectives of Brexit. Personally I'd much prefer that, even if the funds are spent on things I don't necessarily agree with.