The government is launching a Ā£4.8bn Levelling up Fund. Councils and Transport Authorities can bid for money to help pay for projects that can boost jobs,investment and the local economy in their areas.
When I was Local Government Minister I was asked by the Secretary of State to run a City Challenge Fund. This was similar to features of this wider Levelling up fund, seeking as it did to stiumulate investment, jobs, prosperity and improved environments in urban areas that needed a boost. I was keen to ensure that any public money spent was geared to attracting substantial private sector investment in new facilities, jobs and people. I thought the plans could often be most useful where they concentrated on doing those things that the state had to do. Very often it helped bring derelict or disused public sector land back into better use. It could provide better roads into areas that could then be good destinations for new businesses or homes. It helped train local people to be able to take on new jobs that the investors were providing. It could improve the quality and appearance of the public realm in the local area to make it a more desirable place for the private sector and new residents to flourish in. The idea was to use government money to help and harness local efforts and private enterprise. You can only help create a great city or a flourishing town if you have a vibrant private commercial sector, and a range of voluntary and community groups and institutions alongside Council and government services.
I assume these features will be built into the Levelling up Fund.It will be more capital grant than revenue costs, so bidders will need to choose schemes which provide that backdrop to a successful lift off in private and community activity, drawing on a wide range of investors and companies. I suggest this fund could assist with the task of increasing the UK’s capacity to make things for ourselves. Local and national government could bring better roads and rail links, cleaned up land, permissions and potential public sector orders for items the new and expanding businesses can make. Requiring substantial local and private sector involvement and effort is essential to continuing success. It is no good doing a place up with public ownership and money without allowing a much wider rage of activities and investors to enrich the local area and provide a broader base and more stability for future jobs and incomes.
March 9, 2021
Good morning
For me that is the killer sentence. No one knows, even our kind host, on what this money is to be spent on. More borrow and waste as LL would say.
The money is also less than half that which we send to the EU each year so that they can continue to sell more to us, steal our fish and abuse us. All courtesy of the same government.
Just cut spending and reduce taxes. Simple.
March 9, 2021
Indeed let businesses and people spend their own money they do it far more efficiently than government at least twice as efficiently and often 20 times.
The parable of the (Mark Rashford publicised) school lunch boxes is repeated endlessly. Tax people Ā£50 waste Ā£20 in collection and admin, give Ā£30 to a company to provide about Ā£5 of apples, yoghurt, cheese, nasty sliced bread, pasta, a tomato and spuds to the child. But then doubtless the company had to spend Ā£20 on lobbying, employing political consultants and other activities to win the gov. contract! Cost Ā£50 value delivered Ā£5 at best. Government in a nutshell.
March 9, 2021
HS2 similar ratio. Cost 10 times value delivered. With the idiotic war on CO2 plant food cost Ā£ trillions value delivered surely negative.
Andrew Montford The Spectator – The hidden cost of Net Zero:-
āgovernment officials deliberately hid āmore realisticā estimates which showed Net Zero would cost billions more than publicised, while agreeing amongst themselves that the predicted costs were āhighly uncertainā.
These revelations came about after the Treasury was finally defeated in a two-year battle to prevent me seeing documents Iād requested under the Freedom of Information Act.ā
March 9, 2021
Lifelogic – The construction of new roads on housing estates is the responsibility of the developer, who constructs the development.
However, they often don’t do it ‘ far more efficiently than government’. There are lots of new housing estates near me that the builders haven’t even put street lights up and cars have to put their lights on full beem to turn left into one estate because they can’t see where the curb is, the roads are unfinished years after the houses were built and the Council are just hoovering up the average Ā£2500 per house and letting the builder off.
March 9, 2021
Indeed, it is often part of the planning agreement. So this is largely the fault of the council for not either having a legally tight and enforceable agreement or simply not enforcing it efficiently.
March 9, 2021
Current absurd lockdown costing tax payers Ā£billions – value delivered by it clearly hugely net negative.
March 9, 2021
Yes. HMG thinks itās better to give more to the EU.
As ever supply side interventions indeed instead of creating demand through tax cutting etc they have reduced it by putting taxes up, the economics of madness supported by our host.
Bring on vanity projects and waste. Local authorities indeed all the public sector are like vampire squid addicted to spending any money available. My council now has two white elephants in the middle of town, the second relatively recently creating a cold heartless environment filled with large franchises and an anchor tenant, a supermarket, that was never busy after the initial euphoria.
Create the demand, ease consents etc, think hubs not one offs and the private sector will do the job far more efficiently.
4 billion odd for the whole country, what a pea shooter merely political virtue signalling. 100 billion wasted on HS2 (HS1 cost overrun 16% so more to come) now that would be a bazooka.
March 9, 2021
Nige,
The govt could have created levelling up around the country by negotiating properly for our fishing industry. Instead it has kept it the same with the problem coming back in 2026. Cornwall to north east of England could have been helped and supercharged. Govt, aka Johnson, decided to lie and spin instead. Coincidently these areas are classed as areas of high deprivation! These people already realised they were sold out!
In typical fashion my suspicion is that Johnson has banked on the fact he will be gone, the post of PM serving to create personal wealth for him and it will be someone elseās problem to resolve.
March 9, 2021
” the economics of madness supported by our host.”
Incorrect NIG L. Out host advocates tax reduction to get the economy growing again.
March 9, 2021
@Mark B
Why are we still paying the EU the same amount as our contributions used to be before we āleftā?
What time do you get up?
March 9, 2021
Because that was the alleged divorce settlement for leaving! Martin HoweQC and others think the contribution is likely to be 8 excess of Ā£100 billion. It was based on principles not actual amounts. JR provided a figure from the red book the other day.
I think Mark has actually under estimated the figure, it will be more because Johnson wants us taxpayers to pay for extras like EU military under EU Horizon.
March 9, 2021
I do not know why we pay them at all, they should be paying us !
4am. Off home early today (5pm) as I have something on. The life of a Self Employed Worker (classed as essential).
March 9, 2021
@Mark B
What line of work are you in?
March 9, 2021
@Mark B
You are talking about taking a pragmatic realistic achievable approach. Having a left leaning administration at the helm, means it is their way or no way – they no best and the rest are just fodder. They forget reality the only person that can change anything, and increase the wealth fare and wellbeing of the Nation is the person that look’s back at you in the mirror in the morning.
March 9, 2021
@ian@Barkham; You are mixing up national wealth and personal wealth, when you, I or anyone reading this site looks in the mirror the only people enriched is ourselves. When I look at govt infrastructure projects, for example nuclear power of the 1950s & ’60s, the national grid, or the motorways, even the modernisation of the existing railway system, I see an enriched nation, not sure what you see…
March 9, 2021
@jerry
In todays new WOKE world, Governments don’t invest for a return, it is a process of an ever depreciating cycle of ever greater demands on the very few taxpayers that cant escape Government Clutches. The UK Government spends your money on spin and messages before the fabric of the Nation. Most people on this site could produce a greater return for the Countries Wealth if as one of the highest taxed countries in the World their personal finances weren’t crippled by ever greater meaningless demands. The real earners from the UK’s wealth have their tax base outside of the UK – they get the greatest rewards but contribute the least.
As you say a generation ago the UK did to some extent sort of spend money on a future, that’s all gone now. Money spent without pay back, is not an investment – that’s terminal decline.
March 9, 2021
@ian@Barkham; There is some truth in what you say, but one has to ask, since that golden era of govt investment, 1945-79, just what sort of govt agenda/policies created the “WOKE” world you describe, clue it started well before Blair ever became PM, even if it did reach its zenith during his tenure.
March 10, 2021
@jerry Governments are never good at ‘investment’. The Worlds history has been defined by individuals being let of the rein – some good, some very bad. But the bad is never in the same league is Government peccadillos. As you mentioned Nuclear Power I am reminded that Gordon Brown desperate for money to spend said the UK does not or have a future in Nuclear, so he sold it off.
The best person to spend your hard earned money is you, if that coincides with Government asperations that’s OK but for the most part Governments see your wallet as their free cash to bribe you so as to win the next election and not for the betterment of the Country.
March 11, 2021
@ian@Barkham; Yours is a prime example of the absurd late ’70s thinking that came from trying to compare govt spending with that of a housekeepers shopping basket, resulting in 40+ years of nonsense from some on the hard right and their equally absurd claims that the individual knows best, when most of the time the individual wouldn’t know their kingpin from their keystone to make a guess never mind an informed decision. Price along is no measure.
I get the impression your real issue here is not so much the State making poor investment choices, when in fact 999 times out of a 1000 the State has made very good decisions [1], but by doing so they restrict the ‘added value’ opportunity for the private investor once the infrastructure project has been build and is signed off as completed. Of course the private investor has now found ways around this, hence why PFI has become such a burden upon the public sector and Exchequer for example.
[1] only later being let down by poor project management, often by then in the hands of the private contractors
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
āIt could provided better roadsā perhaps, but Sadiq Kahn and many local authorities seem far more interested in road blocking and mugging motorists (with bus and bike lanes) than doing anything positive or useful on roads.
So Boris sats the burden of Covid ā has fallen disproportionally on womenā. Rather an odd view given that nearly twice as many men die from it (or catch is badly) as women. But in a way I suppose it does. This as about twice as many women lose their partners as men do. With about an addition 1000+ widows being the direct result of JCVI/Zahawi anti-male discrimination in vaccination priority.
March 9, 2021
Johnson is definitely Not following the data to reduce totalitarian lock down against freedoms and liberties as he claimed. Again, a clear lie. He is following strict dates and communist China approach heralded by SAGE members. Govt cannot make up its mind whether numbers reduced because of vaccination or lockdown! They cannot decide which lie to follow!
US press want to interview Kristi Noem on an ever increasing basis because of the way she dealt with the virus in her state under conservative principles and values!
JR, your party need to pay attention she will give you all a lesson in conservatism! No masks, no businesses closed, schools open, no one criminalised and all elderly and vulnerable protected. Hospitals not overrun despite left wing threats and scares by Fauci and left wing MSM. Her stats for the virus much better than those with hard lock down policies. Get Johnson to explain why.
March 9, 2021
LL,
25 years of hot air is an article in Con Woman today. It highlights the stupidity of the whacko green lunacy of Johnson and his left wing govt. UK is estimated to have 40 million cars against 365 million cars in China. There is no possibility of China giving up its cars by 2030! Nor other countries. Johnson appears determined to bankrupt our country.
Both India and China building coal fired power stations in their own countries and building them for other countries as well. What is Johnsonās aim, certainly making any difference to the world climate that is for sure.
March 9, 2021
Certainly not making any difference to world climate.
March 10, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
“The idea was to use government money to ….”
…. but the government has no money. It’s taxpayers money ?
March 9, 2021
+1
And it is also open to question how much of this ‘levelling up’ will go to private sector entrepreneurs and how much will be kept for the extra management needed to supervise the creation of yet more non-jobs?
March 9, 2021
@OldWulf
Not this again. Where do you think money comes from in the first place? You got it by working. The person who paid you got it by working. The person who paid them … etc.
But none of them creates the money in the first place. Government and the banking system creates money. It then circulates in the economy. Think what would happen if everyone who could afford to simply stopped spending money. If we all took our savings out of the bank and kept the cash at home. Then, truly, you might regard that money as ātaxpayersā moneyā and the government would be short of money as that money would not be circulating in the economy and not available to the government to tax and spend paying people to do work for the public good.
In that situation the government would have to print more money. They can always print more money.
March 9, 2021
@Mike Wilson
My comment was intended to be simple.
The Government takes money from the taxpayer and then spends it.
THAT should not be forgotten.
March 9, 2021
But it isnāt simple, it is wrong. You give the impression of the government in one room with no money and taxpayers in another room with money. Each time taxpayers spend or earn money, in your proposition, the government takes some of the taxpayersā money.
In your simple system, if the government started with nothing and the taxpayers started with Ā£100, after a while the government would have all the money and the taxpayers would have none.
The reality is that government creates money and it circulates in the economy. Round and round it goes.
March 9, 2021
@Oldwulf; It is not ‘taxpayers money’, although govt spending is funded by way of taxation, once tax is paid title to that money has changed. Tax is a lawful financial transaction, just as paying for goods at the supermarket checkout is, govt income is no more ‘taxpayers money’ than a supermarkets income is their customers money!
March 9, 2021
when purchasing something from the supermarket one receives consideration in return for payment. No such transaction exists in taxation @jerry so I think the term taxpayers’ money is applicable. The government is after all spending (poorly in many instances) on behalf of the taxpayer.
March 9, 2021
@NS; Nonsense, or do you you pay for a private army, police force, Fire and rescue, what do you think pays for the prison service, State sector education, public health services etc etc. Just because you personalty do not agree with how the Govt spends the money raised via taxation doesn’t mean there is no “return for payment”.
March 9, 2021
@Narrow Shoulders
Not at all. We pay tax and we get teachers, schools, hospitals, doctors, nurses, roads and a whole host of other things.
Yes, ‘spending on behalf of the taxpayer (i.e. spending on behalf of society as a whole) is a much better description than ‘spending taxpayers’ money’.
March 9, 2021
No, government spending is not funded by taxation.
March 10, 2021
@Mike Wilson; If govt doesn’t obtain its funds from taxation please explain where do they obtain it. I’m pretty sure my local govt authority uses income from my council tax to buy many of the local services provided on its behalf, or perhaps my bins are are being emptied for free by the waste management company?!
March 9, 2021
@Oldwulf – that’s exactly why this Government doesn’t care – they have the mechanism to keep demanding you pay more.
March 9, 2021
Were I to be in the process of setting up a new high tech business that made things, what would I look for. Good communications, and a pleasant low cost area for my staff to dwell in. Good local education facilities with a possible feed from a tech oriented university. Good local medical facilities. Possitive thinking local government that could respond to need rather than political issues. This would facilitate the creation of the support structure of pubs, hairdressers and gyms which means further entrepreneurs taking a risk. Success attracts success. If all the above could attract HMG support funding all the better for that. So Westminster, practise on getting it right for all the Freeports you are about to set up. Above all listen to the people who wish to set up manufacture in these new areas.
March 9, 2021
@agricola
The way to ensure it works is to have your business domiciled in some where like Luxemburg, then enjoy the facilities of the UK’s ‘Freeport’. Enjoy the wealth and structure created by the taxpayer. Pay all your management fees to your place of domicile so avoid the tax burden of the UK. You get to have and enjoy your new found wealth without ever contributing to the source. Being high tech you could even do it all remotely.
March 9, 2021
Have a preference for Guernsey.
March 10, 2021
And be daily complaining about the UK government and tax system, while enjoying a non-dom status?
March 9, 2021
You sound like Blair and it’s grotesquely offensive. We want reform of McCluskey’s power base that is the now openly Marxist public sector with direct taxes slashed and deregulation
Stop enacting policies whose only purpose is to protect your party from harm, avoid a war with the unions and garner at least media headlines that aren’t too critical
We know it’s not John Redwood’s fault that the party he belongs to has sold us down the Marxist river but he could at least show a degree of opposition to the filth that his party is now imposing upon us by refusing to condemn it
March 9, 2021
+100
Graham Brady MP has made lots of good cogent evidence based arguments that Johnson an Hancock keeps ignoring. Charles Walker MP has also stood up and made clear the grotesque nature of govt action. I cannot think of any more.
The Fake Tories are destroying g their own party and do not realise it. They rely on survey and focus groups. Has history taught them nothing in this regard?
March 9, 2021
ā¦and decimating voter approval with media approval
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
+1
I reckon that a relatively covert war with the unions has been playing out during the pandemic.
Tories became Nu Labour due to adoration of āThe Masterā.
For shame any true Conservative!!
March 9, 2021
Levelling up has been going on for years. Especially in Wokingham. Just starve whichever area that is supposed to be well off of the annual government grant then get the council to dip into the local populations pocket with rises in council tax irrespective of income based on the size of a property you bought whilst working. How much is the leader of the council on. Why not insist that is levelled up with say…….. the nurses pay.
Another 117 illegals landed at Dover yesterday. No they didnāt. They were picked up by the border force taxis an escorted in. Its not the summer months yet.
March 9, 2021
If this government spent the Ā£4.8bn levelling up fund to stop illegal immigrants entering the UK, theyād recoup the money ten fold in quick fashion ā no more payments to the French, no more money to convert army bases to 5* hotels, no more money to hotels, no more pocket money to illegal immigrants, no more money to solicitors ā¦ā¦.
March 9, 2021
Glad you were allowed to point out last bit of your comment.
Similar from moi yesterday deleted.
But we all know anyway….donāt we?
March 10, 2021
BW, Yes, but according to the Times (09/02/2021) 1.5m EU citizens left the UK during the pandemic and might not be able to come back here (all those with a provisional right to stay who have been away for more than six months).
So say 5,000 new illegal immigrants have arrived, 1.5m provisionally accepted legal ones might never return.: Results: minus 1.495m in the country.
As for glenās comment: are the Napier barracks 5* hotels, former service people would have loved them if they had been.
I know perfectly well that this type of argument will not meet any consideration by the very sad type of people you are, but isnāt it fun to show how bigoted you are?
March 10, 2021
Hef,
Could you point to the accurate way the country and/or govt compiles its immigration figures. I thought the figures were based on estimates from surveys? Similarly, the Home Office has consistently told select committees it ālost to their systemā hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. Home Office claimed 250,000 under May as HS and 56,000 under Rudd.
The govt. has also showed it has issued more NI numbers to EU foreigners than their estimates for immigration. Quite confusing.
Grateful for the accurate numbers.
March 9, 2021
I studied regional Policy at O Level ( my good that was a while ago ) , in those days it was taken seriously as correction of market failure. Sadly it failed , a wine bar and Museum about mining did not replace the mine. Nowadays its just a gimmick.
The systemic problems of inequality exist almost entirely within regions not between them. The poorest area ( the North East), already flooded with public money, has an average 21% less disposable income than the South East, but that is before housing costs. After housing I doubt you can see the difference.
March 9, 2021
I holiday with people from the NE. They’re always the ones with gleaming caravans and 4x4s to tow them, and they take the largest number of foreign trips. (We rarely go abroad and we only have a tent.)
Compare the average SE wage with the average SE rent. I don’t believe what you’re saying.
March 9, 2021
Sorry. We appear to be in agreement. I apologise, Newmania.
March 9, 2021
Unfortunate wording? SE wage spells something quite different.
March 10, 2021
š
March 9, 2021
The only sustainable way to develop an area is to set conditions so that businesses, especially SMEs can flourish, and flourish without continued grants
Good well paid permanent jobs are the only way out of poverty
Every thing else including building investment centres, starting even more networking groups, painting rainbows and recruiting temporary staff to monitor and measure how levelling up is working, is a waste of time
March 9, 2021
I am essentially a monarchist, believing it is an essentially better system to flagship a country than a retired politician past his or her best. Witness the EU. Only Winston Churchill had comparable experience to our current monarch who comes minus his political mistakes.
It therefore grieves me to see the institution badly served by some of its members and support staff. Little seems to have been learnt since all that went badly in the life of Diana. Last nights revelations, measured though they were, gave an insight to an institution in deep trouble. Not helped by our, at the same time, both sycophantic and rapacious tabloid press, which means most of it.
That it is in need of modern professional public relations is glaringly obvious. That it needs a modern support staff to respond to the needs of its members without reference to what happened two hundred or more years in the past is also a certainty. It would appear that most current members are living in a time warp, helpless to events, in a situation where nothing can change. To expect a young couple, one of whom had no previous experience, to blend into such a regime is a mental act of vandalism/ torture.
We need, after consultation and thought, a clear out of present incumbent staff and its replacement by a more user friendly version for the inmates. A reduction in the workload of royals and their number. As in any thriving organisation they should be there on merit. Loosing Harry and Megan is an unmitigated disaster. I hope they thrive and enjoy their release, though there is scope for them to do much good around the Commonwealth, if only someone will wake to the fact.
March 9, 2021
@agricola
Give me strength! Why does it have to be a queen or President Blair? For heavenās sake – what does āflagship a countryā even mean?
If the leader of another country visits us, led them be met by our leader – the current Prime Minister. Why do we need a ceremonial head of state? If we do need one, why should it always be a member of one particular family? Out of all the families in the country, why them?
Why not take turns? Have a lottery every now and then and choose someone to do the appallingly boring job of attending banquets and have to make small talk with complete strangers who, like you, are dressed in fancy dress.
I have to say, when I see them on the box, all dressed up with ribbons and medals and gold braid and swords dangling from their waist, I laugh my head off. What a pantomime it all is.
How on earth does Germany and France and the USA muddle through without a special, āroyalā family
March 9, 2021
@agricola
And Iāll tell you something else, you will never hear the words āyour Highnessā or āyour Majestyā uttered by me. When are we going to grow up and leave this fairytale nonsense about Kings and Queens and Princes and Princesses and Dukes and Duchesses and Ladies in Waiting and footmen in red frock coats standing around to open doors for people presumably too weak to open them themselves in the past where it belongs.
And letās have the land back too.
March 9, 2021
I honestly think they tried their level best in this instance. Dim Harry is a hostage and has Stockholm Syndrome. I expect he’ll be ditched soon.
There was nothing that the Royal Household could have done about this.
Thankfully there was a very low interest in the USA for this interview. Barely a fraction of 1% of Americans bothered to watch it.
As usual the loud mouths will make it a much bigger crisis than it is.
March 9, 2021
Or, a couple in their 30s decide to leave the family firm and the job that they are paid to do and then publicly complain that their feelings are hurt and that their family will no longer pay their bills.
March 9, 2021
Is it possible – mind, I just float this as an idea – that some of the things Meghan said were not precisely true?
March 9, 2021
It really is time to do away with this archaic institution. The Queen has done a good job. Let her be the last monarch – so it can end on a high.
Itāll upset Charles and William a bit but theyāll get over it.
Monarchy has no place in todayās world.
March 9, 2021
Then you don’t understand the role of Monarchy in this country Andy – or as usual choose to ignore it.
Just imagine the alternatives – President Blair comes immediately to mind but just the thought makes me feel slightly nauseous.
March 9, 2021
@IanT
Give me strength!!! You don’t have to have ‘President Blair’ as an alternative. If we need a ‘ceremonial, non-political head of state’, have an election for one and let them serve for 10 years. Who would want the job? Sitting at banquets making small talk with strangers. Yeuk.
March 10, 2021
@IanT; Or indeed ‘President Thatcher’, oh hang on….
March 10, 2021
President Blair or President Thatcher would have been elected for 5, 10, possibly 15 years, not 68 years. Even with a pretty well staffed office, I doubt very much (s)he would have kept the bunch of true or pseudo-aristocrat courtiers around her/him. We would have been spared the Diana-, we would be spared the P.Philip-, and the Harry-Meghan (issues? Ed), with no need for BBC, ITV and newspapers to have āroyal correspondentsā.
With a bit of luck (not guaranteed, for sure) we might even have newspapers a bit less creepy towards the President in charge, well, as it happened in countries with no monarchy or just a citizen-conscious monarchy-lite king or queen (Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Spain).
So IanT, you might need such a monarchical crutch for comfort, but do not make me laugh with your ārole of the Monarchy in this countryā. If we had a real Parliament, we would not need the queen as guarantor of the institutions.
March 11, 2021
@hefner; Call the head of State a Monarch or President, you’ll have the same issues.
You you suggest that we would have been “spared the Diana-“, never heard of Eva PerĆ³n? You say we would have been spared Harry & Meghan, I recall the media coverage when the then PM’s son was feared lost during a Paris-Dakar motor rally, and I also recall family issues surfacing in the MSM during Blair’s premiership too.
The problem is nether having a Monarchy or Presidency but our ‘nosy’ MSM, and the countless numbers of unthinking plebs who quite literally buy into such bilgewater (often exaggerated, involving PERSONAL matters), this is unlikely to change should the UK become a republic, you only need to look towards the USA to see what I mean!
I’m all for press and media freedoms but I think the loss of regulation, and general deference towards others, has done much harm to the UK.
March 9, 2021
@Andy
Well, that’s a first. You have written something I agree with. My comments about the institution of the monarchy appear not to have made it through moderation. I wasn’t rude. I merely pointed out that I find the situations when they are all dressed up with gold braid, ribbons, scarlet jackets and swords extremely amusing. And that the land stolen in ages past should be given back. And that it is an archaic institution that has no place in a 21st century constitution.
March 10, 2021
@Mike Wilson; “I merely pointed out that I find the situations when they are all dressed up with gold braid, ribbons, scarlet jackets and swords extremely amusing”
Are you still talking about the Royal Family or were you talking above about the British Military, or perhaps you were referring to the Lords? The Royals often dress in such regalia because they are required to represent the British institutions, they do not dress like that otherwise – on the other hand walk into any MOD establishment on an almost daily bases and you will see plenty of unnecessary, highly expensive and extremely amusing dress codes!
March 9, 2021
@agricola; “Loosing Harry and Megan is an unmitigated disaster”
The King is dead, long live the King! No more of a disaster than the abdication, but without the crisis…
March 10, 2021
Looks like ITV and Ofcom might have a far bigger crisis brewing this morning (Wednesday) than Buck-house has.
So 41k people complained that a presenter, employed and paid to share his opinion, aired an opinion others do not share, but unless ITV are honestly claiming their ‘GMB’ programme only has 80k odd viewers it stands to reason many more people either have no strong feelings about the opinion or actually agree with the said presenter! It’s the same group-think idiocy that follows protest marches, MSM group-think insists something must be done because a few thousand people marched.
March 9, 2021
I am normally in full agreement with you Agricola – but not in this matter.
I am sure they are two very unhappy people but that could be said of many others in this country (and many millions elsewhere) who can only dream of the very privileged life these two live. Megan is an actress by trade and I’m sure she used her skills to great advantage during this interview. However, rather like ‘The Crown’ it is unfortunate that “My Truths” can be stated without too much fear of an expensive slander suit from the Royals swiftly following along. I feel very sorry for Harry, he seems a sad young man – but I have even more sympathy for his family having to put up with these very personal and public attacks.
March 9, 2021
From your description it sounds more like a sound bite (that will be repeated from time to time by Ministers desperate to find something to say when cornered) than a thought through policy.
March 9, 2021
It would fund nearly 5,000 Ā£1,000,000 projects. 10,000 Ā£500,000 projects. If tendering processes and costs are controlled it is a lot of money.
Of course that relies on costs being controlled.
Sir John, speaking of costs can you clarify the Ā£37 billion spent on track and trace. This figure can not be correct are you able to provide one (or other contributors) so we might reply to Labour when they raise it?
March 9, 2021
Which company amongst the BIG AUDIT companies is going to ‘audit’ the Track and Trace? I would imagine the fees will become another Ā£1bn on top of the Ā£37bn and will not produce a verdict for years…
March 10, 2021
Ā£37bn ……this government
ITS AN APP
March 9, 2021
“It is no good doing a place up with public ownership and money without allowing a much wider rage of activities and investors to enrich the local area and provide a broader base and more stability for future jobs and incomes.”
Well, who is preventing this wider range of activities? – you and the 649 others! We might also ask where are the companies and entrepreneurs banging on the doors. We might also ask why has this not been done as a continuous process – I repaint and update my house regularly, I don’t let it get into a poor state – why have you and the other 649 let The North get into a state of neglect.
This all has the whiff of a cheap makeover programme on the telly. A bit of paint and decking and some rubbish building works – all to fall apart come the winter rains.
More worrying, where are the large enterprises to fill this newly tarted up North with jobs? They have studied their cost models and logistics plans and staffing plans and gone elsewhere that’s what. You have made us less attractive Sir John, time to reveal the great strategy you have cooked up – before it is too late.
March 9, 2021
It must be right that the poorest parts of our country get a hand up.
What is not right is the way this Tory government is allocating the money. It is nearly all going to Conservative constituencies.
Blatantly bribing your new friends in the north just angers your old friends in the south.
March 9, 2021
@Andy
Oh come on, Andy. The poor parts of the country are Conservative now! Keep up! I live in a very nice part of the country. And, despite my voting for Green candidates in any election, it is most definitely a Tory stronghold. We have one of the highest council taxes in the country and get very little grant from ācentral governmentā or āTory centralā as we call it round here.
Still, in my pensioned idleness (thanks again, for your kind contributionsā), I donāt begrudge the Tory government spending money on poor Tory areas and leaving the rich Tory areas to fend for themselves.
March 9, 2021
Why do I have no confidence that the Government will get it right, too many WOKE ideas, Too little Common-sense, Too much political correctness, too much Government control, Too long to do anything.
March 9, 2021
@Alan Jutson
Oh come on, Alan. Oh ye of little faith. Look at the governmentās track record and, in the words of the greatest leader this country has had since Churchill, āRejoice!ā Itās a lovely, sunny day.
March 9, 2021
more social manipulation by politicians.
the old working class heartlands I know best would be doing fine if it were not for the decades of social manipultion imposed on them by politicians.
really we would all be far better off if politicians got out of the way, all they do is add overheads and inefficiency.
March 9, 2021
Correct
Remember the regional mayors, if you vote for them weāll give your council an extra pot of cash
An out and out bribe with the intent of social engineering
March 9, 2021
Reply to Iain Gill
Politicians eh? Itās a dirty, thankless job but someone has to do it.
Thank heavens for Mr. Redwood dedicating his life to such an awful job.
March 9, 2021
this whole narrative would look a lot better if it were not for the fact some of the richest places in the country have been given levelling up funds, suspictiously because their local Conservative MP is in a position of power.
March 9, 2021
Just more spin. Councils get money. Councils get their favourite contractors to spend it, to include big fees for their consultant friends and work for Council office jobsworths. Big banners go up advertising the projects. Some of the money will be unaccounted for.
Will anyone else see any benefit? No.
Corruption in motion is what this is.
March 9, 2021
If you want to level up, make the money available as āno questions askedā mortgages in those areas with low house prices.
I bought a 2 up, 2 down cottage near Maidenhead in 1984. It was in need of renovation. I paid Ā£34k for it. I noticed yesterday that it is currently For Sale. It is priced at Ā£465,000
When it was built in Victorian times, it would have been a farm labourerās tied cottage. For a young person these days to afford such a tiny house as a first time buy they would need to be earning Ā£100k a year.
This, Mr. Redwood, is the insanity you have brought us to with your endless money printing, encouragement of ever increasing consumer debt and failure to regulate the banks.
And you are still at it! Prices have leapt again even during the pandemic. My modest hovel, bought in April 2019, has gone up about Ā£50k according to recent estate agent valuations. All because of the stamp duty holiday causing a surge in activity.
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
@Mike Wilson, It might seem weird to some, most of the time grants are create the opposite of what was intended to happen. Grants for first time buyers tends to go to those that could afford the place in the first place. As such it then creates price inflation in the housing stock.
I always think its a bit strange that we the taxpayer has to subsidies those that want electric vehicles when they can well afford it themselves. Meaning those that could never afford a new car are forced to pay for those that already can- is that what is meant by levelling up?
March 9, 2021
+Mass migration.
March 9, 2021
Nt sure that involving local councils is much of an idea – it will all descend into corruption and cronyism.
March 9, 2021
Sir John
As with all this type of handout it is just tinkering and tweaking an unfair and unbalanced system.
You mention new roads and infrastructure, the contradiction there is that those that benefit most from that type of give-away are also the ones that proportional contribute the least.
If there was a serious intent to invest, it should also demonstrate a return. That would then generate the next set of investment funds. An illustration here would be the original Marshal Plan Fund, Germany used it to invest, create a return and rebuild, the UK, well lets be honest they blew it on personal peccadillos. The UK Government achieved no return, and the taxpayer was just handed debt.
So is what is being proposed is it just more torture of the ever decreasing yet over burdened taxpayer, a bit of spin to sucker those into believing UK Governments can do anything other than steal from the people.
March 9, 2021
@ian@Barkham – I noticed yesterday the UK taxpayer is burden with Green taxes that on balance compared with the EU are 20% greater – so where is the green economy, the payback, the reduction in waste, the greening of the UK.
March 9, 2021
Not one green wind farm propeller has returned a cheaper electric per unit charge to the consumer
March 9, 2021
Levelling up ?
No. This is levelling down.
Thousands upon thousands of new houses built in this area with no jobs, no extra roads, schools ‘n’ hospitals and cuts in police.
Crime (especially drugs) is now going through the roof. Litter has got worse and there appear to be these scary looking dogs with clipped ears and dragging their face-tattooed owners everywhere – most intimidating compared to the gentle area I first moved into 17 years ago.
March 9, 2021
@NoLongerAnonymous
Where are you talking about?
March 9, 2021
No Longer Anon. Unfortunately this is being repeated in many villages in Shropshire and Sussex is unrecognisable. Houses built on any bit of land to be found. Traffic terrible with no bypass which has been an idea on paper for over 50 years. 300k new homes planned for Shropshire by 2035.
March 9, 2021
Mass migration policy to continue with the legacies.
March 10, 2021
Sorry John, that should have been 30k new homes on green belt land and not 300k. Extra nought makes all the difference.
March 9, 2021
For years, London has been sucking the life out of the rest of the UK. Levelling up is long overdue.
If HS2 is to be built, then build it north of Birmingham before south of Birmingham…… and make sure that, eventually, the London route is one way – out of London but not in.
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
Quite the reverse London and the South East has largely been paying the bills for all the other regions.
March 9, 2021
@Lifelogic
I believe that, as London has been sucking the “talent” from the rest of the UK, it and the South East have been able to generate the high levels of taxation which you rightly imply.
A repatriation of that talent may assist with the levelling up. However, many businesses may still feel that they cannot move away from London, despite the increase in remote working. Any change will therefore take time although recent announcements about opening Government Offices in the regions, are a small start.
March 9, 2021
@LifeLogic
Well, let HS2 take the money up there even more quickly. I didn’t realise until the other day that the first 13 miles of HS2 out of Euston is in a tunnel – all the way out to Ruislip. The mind boggles.
March 10, 2021
HS2 will have 64 miles of tunnels, 9 between London and Birmingham.
March 9, 2021
As pointed in the ONS study āCountry and regional public sector finances: financial year ending 2019ā London, South East and East of England (in decreasing order) have net fiscal surpluses and subsidise the other regions, which are all in deficit.
Maybe the āSouth Eastā has been āsucking the life out of the rest of the UKā, but in terms of public money thatās exactly the opposite.
March 9, 2021
@Hefner
Please see above, my reply to Lifelogic. I believe that migrating expats from the regions have significantly contributed to the financial success of London.
I would add that, a good while ago, I spent a few years working in Central London. Whilst the work was enjoyable, I was not a fan of the daily commute. The highlight of my time there was bumping into David Bowie in a pub near Leicester Square.
March 10, 2021
Looking at investment – London has Cross-Rail whereas outside the M25 gets dormitory towns interconnected by the Cross Rail and I am not convinced HS2 is for the benefit of the northern economy.
If you are in the Thames Valley you also get to fund London’s “super sewer”.
Boris – shift main airport from West of London to East.
Cameron – shift IT from Thames Valley to some magic roundabout.
London generates more tax revenues because since we joined the EU support has focused on the finance sector while allowing other industries to be leached away and wither.
March 9, 2021
Let the private sector design projects and bid for the money, not local authorities.
Any contract awarded must also include running whatever is built afterwards for, say a decade. Director’s personal guarantees should be required to ensure that the costs and benefits are realistic and attainable.
In this way, the cash would be spent on projects that have a chance of making money rather than hopelessly uneconomic trophy projects for which the running costs will just be added to the council tax bills of local ratepayers.
March 9, 2021
Oh, and by the way, the first round of projects should be to replace all those ludicrious and hugely dangerous “Smart” motorways with proper extra lanes.
March 9, 2021
Smart motorway. An oxymoronic metaphor for government.
March 9, 2021
+1
Indeed to even think this was a good idea in the first place just shows once again any lack of common-sense
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
@ChrisS
Please no more money spent so we ants can commits by the million on motorways.
March 9, 2021
A “Levelling up Fund” sounds all well and good but is in fact just words that cover-up a gross lack of vision, just as all the talk the UK becoming an IT super-highway was, the majority of UK still doesn’t have FTTP for example.
Without direct central Govt planning and instruction -like we had post war, when taxpayer funded New Towns, slum clearance, and transport investment etc. became inter-party bragging matches at each election- little will ever get done, and what does get done will be to little, to late, whilst costing far more than it need because project will have commercial consultants only for them to come back a year or two to later and tell the plebs what the plebs have known for years!
If the govt really wants to help people “Level up”, help businesses to grow; fix the broken planning system, people need homes, not shoe boxes; businesses need decent low cost premisses, without needless restrictions on use; fix UBR; fix the broken regulation within the telecoms industry [1] etc. Non of that will cost anything like Ā£4.8bn but will remove the shackles from the economy and thus lift living standards and be naturally income positive for the Treasury.
[1] I note a Census is due, the govt has assumed universal access to either a telephone or the internet, well best they make such access a right then, not a privilege…
March 9, 2021
As an English person, I resent the fact that levelling up has to be turned into a bidding war. Why not just scrap the extra billions of English taxes that are given to the devolved nations via the skewed Barnett Formula and distribute the UK coffers evenly across the whole UK for a change. Ā£4.8 billion for a population of 60 million compared to Ā£15 billion given to Scotland alone with a population of 5 million is an insult.
As a UK MP representing an English constituency John when are you going to ask Johnson if his levelling up agenda means equal funding for your constituents and the rest of England?
March 9, 2021
Wokingham is normally BOTTOM of the funding table, so I doubt Sir John will make any headway with that approach.
March 9, 2021
A typical council receives an allocation of @Ā£3m of the ālevelling upā fund
They spend it on new premises and recruiting ten new staff members on short-term contracts. They promote this new inward investment service to community groups, charities and SMEs to bid for Ā£50k grantsā¦..its all been done before ā itās a bribe
The Ā£4.8bn should be used to raise the threshold of SME business rate, make high street parking free and improve the cleaning & maintenance of our roads/high street
March 9, 2021
And hot off the press. The ultimate shame. Tax officials to get 13% rise over three years.
What a ****** disgrace.
March 9, 2021
+1
Plus extra paternity leave etc.
March 9, 2021
are there any public servants not getting a pay rise ? giveth to one giveth to all !
March 9, 2021
Off topic, when Boris Johnson talks about post-Brexit “teething problems” at the Northern Irish border being ironed out with “goodwill” and “imagination”:
https://www.politico.eu/article/boris-johnson-goodwill-imagination-fix-post-brexit-teething-problems/
he seems to have forgotten that:
a) He agreed to create a new border in the wrong place; and
b) The Irish government ceased to show “goodwill” in the autumn of 2017; and
c) On the other hand they used plenty of “imagination”, imagining that at present there is no border and none should be allowed to “re-emerge”, imagining that the UK would rush to build border posts for the IRA to blow up, staffed by stern-faced customs officers stopping vehicles as they crossed into Northern Ireland, but doing nothing to prevent contraband goods crossing into the Republic to pollute the EU Single Market.
All of which twaddle was allowed to pass unchallenged by his predecessor, who welcomed the creation of a mountain out of a molehill on the Irish land border as a good pretext to keep as much of the UK as possible under as much EU law as possible, just as both the CBI and the Irish government also wanted.
March 9, 2021
In 2007 when it was introduced the Active Traffic Management (āSmartā motorways) system was supposed to take (for a given length of motorway) two years and Ā£5m to Ā£15m per mile. In those days the equivalent cost for actual widening (addition of a lane) was 10 years and about Ā£80m per mile.
For the M4 (junction 11 not far from Sir Johnās Wokingham constituency) the āSmart Motorway All-Lane-Runningā (SMALR) is described in details on assets.highwaysengland.co.uk āM4 upgrade to smart motorway, junctions 3 to 12ā, 15 pages.
Also on http://www.highwaysengland.co.uk/m4j3to12 it is said āstart date 2018, end date 2022, cost Ā£848mā for 32 miles, 38 emergency points, 11 ārejiggedā bridges. This document is updated regularly, latest information dated 17/02/2021.
Due to Covid, work of the M4 south of Reading supposed to end in May 2020 has just been completed. It will be interesting to know how much this whole thing will have cost when it is finished, how much profit Costain/Serco, Kier, Balfour Beatty and others will have made out of the whole project and how Grant Schapps and Chris Heaton-Harris will possibly answer questions in the Transport Committee.
March 9, 2021
+1
March 9, 2021
Ā£4.8 bn is an insultingly small figure when compared with HS2’s Ā£100bn to Ā£200bn price tag for which there is no economic case left for getting from the centre of London to the outskirts of Birmingham 20 minutes quicker.
If there is a capacity case for new railway line, even after we have seen the effects of our first pandemic when rail travel was effectively closed down to assist in the halting of the spread of CV-19, then it doesn’t need to be an environmentally unfriendly and energy consuming high speed option.
March 9, 2021
Charles Moore excellent as usual today in the Telegraph on Ampleforth, Megan and the appalling BBC coverage.
March 9, 2021
Money taken from individuals (tax) and directed to institutions levels down, not up. Always has, always will do.
March 9, 2021
correct
March 9, 2021
I wasnāt successful with my online covid vaccination booking; as it would only give me the first jab date and not the second jab. With the centre being only a few miles away I travelled there to book with them directly, which is an option.
The temp centre is both for testing and vaccination, however the vaccination part and its staff where closed when I arrived. I asked the testing staff when its due to re-open ā they didnāt know, they donāt communicate with each other ā¦same organisation different division.
Also I noted that the testing part had @10 staff, however the place was empty, they informed me that it been like that for weeks as every wants the vaccination not the test
I was dying to ask why donāt the 10 testing staff also do vaccinations ???
March 9, 2021
The whole thing is a mess.
Since it is so shambolic I have wondered if in their idiotic and oh so transparent ānudgingāthey think that we will be more eager for a jab we believe to be impossible to get.
They arenāt that clever though because their methods are manipulative and underhand. The vaccine isnāt mandatory….but youāve got to have it. Gun to head really. No jab …no job, no travel, no life.
If the courts allow them to get away with it?
March 9, 2021
@glen cullen
Why would that be a problem? I have had my first jab but assume I will be called for my second jab in the same way that I was called for my first.
March 10, 2021
We were both told that we would be called for the second jab within 12 weeks. At face value thats all we wanted and needed to know.
March 10, 2021
The online booking wasn’t a problem
My problem was with my visit to the centre which was closed and the testing centre which was empty with ten staff doing nothing ?
March 9, 2021
The money will be spent on cycle lanes and car-free zones. The local economies will be further crushed, not helped. To stop this you need some people with common sense to oversee the grant allocations. Have we any such people left?
March 10, 2021
oh the endless cycle lanes
March 9, 2021
The principal of the scheme you describe is very similar to the way National Lottery operates. The criteria for large grants is the applicant must put in what is called “match Funding” although the term does not equate to equal funding as its about 10-15% of the total. However sustainability must be a key element of the applicants Business Plan.
March 9, 2021
It’s just politicians throwing money about because they know themselves they will be long gone when it comes to paying it back- if they could be held accountable by way of matching it with even five per cent in their salaries and pensions I bet they wouldn’t be so reckless
March 9, 2021
I am afraid that a lot of today’s comment are pretty silly. Oh noes! they be taking my tax monies!
Look, Government is simply acting as an intermediary. They are taking some of your tax money, and investing it in places where you would invest if only you had the detailed knowledge the Government has.
Assuming that you don’t want to live in a UK that resembles Sicily, you recognize that infrastructure wears out and requires renewal. London churns out so much money each year that it can do this for itself, but plenty of places outside London need some help.
And if your big gripe is that they might build a modern house in your picturesque village, reflect how much infrastructure is required to make it possible for you to live there.
March 9, 2021
“The best way to “boost jobs, investment and the local economy in their area would be to :-
1) Cease the rtPCR testing of asymptomatic individuals (inline with Kary Mullis’s recommendations).
2) Cap the number of amplification cycles of the rtPCR test at 34 (inline with Kary Mullis’s recommendations) for people presenting at medical facilitie, seeking intervention and treatment.
And when those numbers plummet – as they will – we should :-
3) lift lockdown (never to repeat that measure again) and ease the draconian measures that this dictatorial government have put into place without recourse to PROPER Parliamentary debate, scrutiny and approval.
At some stage in the not too distant future, there should also be :-
4) a review of ALL the historical rtPCR tests to see whether they would have still have showed positive at the 34-cycle threshold, compare the data and see what effect that would have had on ANY of the measures introduced since March 20th 2020 (the Pub lockdown, ahead of the national lockdown).
……. and then see where that takes us in regard to holding all national governments (not just ours) to account over the way national economies have all but been bankrupted, businesses destroyed, livelihoods taken away, and unnecessary lives lost due to the combination of suicides and lack of timely intervention and treatment for other diseases and afflictions”.
Discuss.
Time allowed : as long as it takes.
March 10, 2021
Talking of rail and road projects, which projects in northern England will yield the best economic return:
– Is it the Birmingham to Leeds branch of HS2?
– Is it better road and rail connections to the ports of Liverpool, Sunderland and Immingham?
– Is it east-west rail links as promised in the Conservative manifesto?
Turning to air travel, would providing improved capacity (runways and/or terminals) at regional airports yield a better than expansion at a hub airport like Heathrow. Just to take one example, the Chinese are known to be keen to begin direct flights to Edinburgh. East Midlands and Birmingham airports also want to handle international flights.
Is no one in Government prepared to take on the arduous task of doing the analysis needed to determine which projects are best (a) in narrow financial terms (b) in economic terms and (c) in environmental terms? Such analysis would initially involve determining the market segments and their willingness to pay. When Lord Adonis first mooted HS2 he assumed that the profile of HS2 users would be the same as that for existing railways. Yet that seems unlikely. Would not business travellers be prepared to pay more for a better service and would that not reduce revenue on existing routes?
Considering the vast amounts of money involved, the lack of curiosity and the lack of rigour are staggering.
March 11, 2021
Indeed Lindsay.
According to UKcolumn.org newscast from yesterday the amount allocated for CV19 track&trace is Ā£55 BILLION.
As a species, we have lost the plot.
Or something else in in-play, of which we don’t yet know.