The Consultation Institute (TCI) notes that ‘Levelling up is a collective endeavour’ according to Government’s Paper, but asks ‘why don’t they want to hear from you?’.
…closest it gets to promising community involvement is…. ‘setting up local panels….Even that doesn’t quite promise that it’ll be a truly consultative process…
TCI writes:
2nd February saw the publication of the Government’s landmark “levelling up” paper. It’s fair to say there’s quite a lot riding on it- it was a key promise for the Government in the 2019 election, and the few elements that have been delivered at this point have often been decried as being either underwhelming, or overly favouring marginal seats with Conservative MPs. With the Prime Minister struggling somewhat to gain control of a fractious party and restore floundering poll numbers, it could prove to be make or break.
In light of the fact that the responsible Minister was reported this weekend as decrying it, it’s not been a great start. The paper runs to over three-hundred pages and covers matters ranging from the state of the city of Jericho in 7000BC to net zero, to Covid and education. It’s quite the ride. It makes several mentions of consultation- almost all of which we already know about, but perhaps the most interesting part on a first read for us comes in section 4.2 on “Engagement and Informal Consultation”.
The first paragraph starts well. “Levelling up” it says “is a collective endeavour. Success in closing spatial disparities across the UK will rely on input, buy-in and partnership with a wide range of stakeholders”. So far, so us with a big smile on our face. It continues “with a wide range of stakeholders including local leaders, devolved administrations, businesses, civil society, academics and think tanks.” OK… but what about people? Communities? Is it just going to be institutional consultation? You might argue of course that this falls under the more general ‘civil society’ head, but we’d prefer it to be made clear.
The closest it gets to promising community involvement is in element c of this section which proposes “setting up local panels, drawn from a wide range of stakeholders, to serve as a sounding board on levelling up delivery and implementation, working closely with the new Levelling Up Directors once established”. Even that doesn’t quite promise that it’ll be a truly consultative process.
Another concern might be found in the title of this section which seems, on consultation at least, somewhat noncommittal. Why “informal consultation”? We hope they’re not trying to evade listening to the public- as they were reminded very recently, even an informal exercise you consider to be engagement can be treated as a consultation in courts if it sufficiently resembles one.
It’s not all bad news. The paper acknowledges that “Many of the policies contained within the programme of change will need to be co-designed and co-delivered” and states that engagement and (informal) consultation will be necessary to “avoid the siloed, short-term and small-scale approaches that have hindered attempts to tackle spatial disparities in the past.” This latter one is particularly important- for too long communities have been ignored or unheard, and it’s good to see an acknowledgment of that and the many structural problems that cause problems.
The truth however is that words are one thing, and delivery quite different. The paper may be ambitious, but does the Government really have a grasp of the scale of the challenge, and the will to take the necessary actions to tackle it? Especially given that these actions might mean moving power centres away from Westminster? We’re not yet entirely convinced.
