Promises, Promises and more Promises

With ballot papers landing on doorsteps this week, we take a look at the Conservative leadership candidates’ promises to devolve powers and level up.

To date the contest has been largely defined by debates on tax cuts but it looks like both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss know that they will have to follow through with the Levelling Up flagship. Whoever is crowned on 5 September, the new Prime Minister will be presented with a country whose desire to sort out geographical inequalities is as strong as ever, and a party bolstered by ‘red wall’ constituencies never reached before - until Boris Johnson’s 2019 victory– who will want promises made to be fulfilled.

Rishi’s endorsement from Conservative poster boy, Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen, was a coup, and one the ex-Chancellor is keen to brandish. Whilst Rishi had increasing tension with ‘Brexity Hezza’ Johnson over fiscal discipline, he was the Chancellor who championed Freeports. The flagship Freeport being on Houchen’s home turf. Putting the policy’s effectiveness to one side, this was the essence of Tory Levelling Up: a free-market policy designed to capture formerly Labour votes.

But anything Rishi can do, Liz can do better, promising “full-fat freeports”. Criticising the current Freeports model, the frontrunner promised to stop “allowing Whitehall to pick the winners and losers”. Truss has carefully built a reputation within the Conservative Party over the last few years as a free-thinking radical, eager to challenge the ‘blob’. This plays well against Rishi, maligned by some on the right as a servant to Treasury orthodoxy. 

If Liz Truss wins, which she says she is, expect a Prime Minister who will revel in being seen to shake things up and challenge the Whitehall machinery. Truss has cultivated a bold personality on the right, but that does not necessarily mean bold delivery. Her promise to build Northern Powerhouse Rail in full made a splash. But she is far from the first politician to make this promise to the North, and she will not be the last.

Getting this done does need a Prime Minister who will disrupt the Whitehall way of doing things. But it is easier to say this sort of thing than to do it.

In case you missed it... 

"The term Levelling Up might die but the actual principle of what needs to be done won't." - Gill Morris, CEO of DevoConnect 

In this special edition of Insights In Focus, our CEO Gill Morris, joins ICAEW's Iain Wright, Majeed Neky from the Department for Levelling Up and Sarah Longlands from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, to discuss why the Government's flagship Levelling Up policy will remain, even if the name changes.  

What policies do Conservative voters want to keep?

Save the Date

Northern Leaders including the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, will be meeting in Preston at the Northern Transport Summit to call on the Government to level up transport and infrastructure investment.  They will want to hold the new Prime Minister’s feet to the fire on its Northern Powerhouse Rail promises.  The North desperately  needs better, greener and faster transport if it is going connect its people and places and deliver a powerhouse economy.  A world class transport system should not be a pipe dream in the North. Northern  leaders need greater powers and funding to truly level up transport.  Let’s hope promises are kept.

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