Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to 'level up' Britain
16 July, 2021
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will pledge on Thursday to "level up" the forgotten parts of Britain without damaging those areas that are thriving.
Mr Johnson, who won a 2019 national vote thanks largely to voters in struggling regions of England, will set out his vision, which he hopes will also relieve pressure on other densely populated parts of the country.
The British economy is dominated by London and the south-east, and a 2020 report for the government found that gaps in economic productivity between the capital and other regions of the UK were as wide as they were in 1901.
Many governments have vowed and failed, to bring more jobs and prosperity to the areas around the former industrial towns in northern England.
Mr Johnson has promised to even out the gap in part through higher spending on infrastructure.
"We don't want to decapitate the tall poppies," he will say in a speech in the West Midlands, central England, excerpts released by his office show.
"We don't think you can make the poor parts of the country richer by making the rich parts poorer."
Mr Johnson will say that previous governments directed investment into areas where house prices were already high and transport already congested.
He hopes that by investing in areas with lower growth, people will not have to move to secure better jobs.
"We will have made progress in levelling up when we have begun to raise living standards, spread opportunity, improved our public services and restored people's sense of pride in their community," Mr Johnson will say.
Hit by a pandemic at the start of 2020, Mr Johnson has so far given few concrete examples of how he hopes to change the fortunes of the country's poorer towns.
But the government is looking to invest in the green economy and attract foreign investment.
It has been given a boost in recent weeks with the news that Nissan and Stellantis plan to invest more in Britain, to build a battery plant and electric vans in the north-east and north-west of the country respectively.
Even with that Britain is still lagging behind other big European countries in the race to produce batteries for the new cleaner vehicles of the future.
Coventry Airport, in the West Midlands, is also vying to become the site for a huge factory.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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