Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

‘Levelling up’ other parts of the UK ‘a threat to London,’ UK Government warned

05 Jul 2021 3 minute read
City of London. Picture by Tristan Surtel (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The UK Government has been warned that ‘levelling up’ other parts of the UK is a “threat to London” as the flow of government money England’s capital city has usually enjoyed could dry up.

The chief executive of Centre for London and a former director of mayoral policy at City Hall, Nick Bowes, said that the UK Government Treasury’s opposition to any further financial devolution to Wales and other parts of the UK meant it was “the best friend London needs right now”.

“Government investment that currently flows to the city could be redirected elsewhere, leaving public services, transport, housing, health and education under-resourced,” he said in the Times.

“This is a dangerous gamble with the competitiveness of the city’s economy, particularly at a time when there is so much uncertainty around how well London will bounce back from the big toll the pandemic has taken on the capital.

“Treasury officials — along with those in the Bank of England — can see the country’s balance sheet. Run your finger down the income column and it is London which makes up a substantial chunk of the tax revenue flowing into the Treasury coffers. Recent years have seen London paying almost £40 billion more in tax than the city got back in public spend.

“This money is crucial in normal times, but particularly so now and in future years with the huge bills racked up for dealing with Covid-19. It would be a reckless gamble to pull the rug from underneath the city and endanger London as an economic powerhouse. Without this, the country’s ability to pay its way in the world is seriously hampered.”

‘Magnet’

Nick Bowes did however concede that being so over-reliant on London’s wealth “is a bad thing for the country”.

“Rebalancing is clearly needed with differences between towns, cities and regions substantially narrowed. Instinctively some kind of levelling-up agenda feels right. But the fact is we are where we are now,” he said.

“The country needs London to do well, and for all our sakes, either by accident or intent, the agenda must not morph into a levelling-down of London.

“To do so could sabotage one of our nation’s true gold-standard global brands. London is an enormous source of both soft and economic power on the world stage. It generates substantial wealth and is the gateway into the UK for the 90 per cent of foreign tourists that then go on to Edinburgh, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath and so on, spending billions along the way.

“As a huge magnet for global talent and investment, London’s competitors are not Birmingham, Leeds or Sunderland — but New York, Paris, Berlin and Shanghai.

 


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chris
Chris
3 years ago

Doesn’t really matter because there’s no levelling up to be had.
Even when Coronavirus ends we’ve still got Conservavirus and of course Brexit, the gift that keeps taking.
Londoners being selfish will not save them.
The Westminster hustlers are simply here for the asset stripping

Erisian
Erisian
3 years ago

Yes, he actually said it, out loud. You wonder if he was listening to what he said.

Mark
Mark
3 years ago

Using Mr Bowes assumption that tax actually pays for “stuff” it would seem that however much tax london hands over to the treasury, they still need Welsh taxpayers to subsidise their vanity projects.

hdavies15
hdavies15
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

London is a vanity project, or at least a big part of it is. The centralisation of powers and wealth is immensely harmful. Keeping a percentage of the population of London in poverty or near poverty does not camouflage the imbalance. Here in Wales we see a drift in a similar direction when comparing Cardiff with the Valleys and the rest of Wales.

Dewi Davies
Dewi Davies
3 years ago

Is this the very same London that wanted to break away from the UK and go it alone after the Brexit result because they didn’t agree with it and voted for remain? They didn’t care about anyone other than themselves then and nothing has changed.

Penderyn
Penderyn
3 years ago

London is a black hole that we feed with out taxes and resources

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.