Regional Regeneration and the Outlook for the Devolved Nations and the English Regions

The new Government has replaced the language of 'Levelling Up' with that of local growth, which ties in with its wider focus on boosting GDP growth and productivity across the country while also pushing forward the process of devolution. Both the promise of mission-driven delivery and the creation of an Industrial Strategy Council provide a somewhat novel approach to economic policy-making that has the potential to overcome barriers such as policy churn, departmental silos as well as a lack of planning and coordination across central government and with lower tiers (Pabst and Westwood, 2021). While these are necessary and welcome steps, they are not sufficient to reduce regional and local inequalities substantially. Our work finds that the scale of the task has become even greater over the past five years. For example, the gap in living standards between the prosperous parts of the United Kingdom and poorer areas has widened, and productivity differences have also increased (Bhattacharjee et al., 2024d, e). To some extent, this is the result of shocks such as Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the spike in inflation following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But just as the policy response to these crises was not sufficiently targeted, the strategy to lift up places that have fallen behind lacked the political leadership and resources required to bring about sustained regional regeneration (Bhattacharjee et al., 2024f). Our projections suggest that unless fundamental changes are implemented, there will be no significant progress on narrowing the economic and social gap by 2030 or even 2035. A 'decade of national renewal' requires a level change, not just tinkering at the edges.