A central part of the Conservative government’s election strategy in 2019 was to “level up” the country so that economic success is less concentrated in areas such as London and distributed more evenly throughout the land.
In a recent survey from the University of Cambridge, voters expressed scepticism about the likelihood of this policy working, despite most supporting the idea in theory. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those people living in prosperous areas believe that the policy will mean less government investment in their area.
There appears to be lukewarm support even in areas that could benefit, however, with just 40% believing it should be a priority for the government.
“Those Conservatives raising concerns over how a focus on levelling up might affect party support in the Home Counties are right to be worried,” the authors say. “Johnson insists that levelling up will not mean ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’, but residents of south east England appear to suspect the agenda will involve some redistribution, and that they will be on the losing end of it.”
Levelling up
The survey follows a previous study from the team urging any investment to be made into “social infrastructure, that helps people plug into their local communities.
“A focus on services such as cinemas, museums and leisure centres may be a fast way of boosting local employment and pride, helping to assuage cynicism towards the levelling up agenda,” the researchers say.
“Government has an ingrained bias towards large-scale infrastructure projects such as HS2. Interventions that seek to restore dilapidated town centres or support local initiatives are far more socially and economically beneficial than many in government appreciate.”
National identity
The latest survey also examines feelings of national identity across England. While the biggest group regard themselves as British and English, a significant proportion regard themselves as English.
There are some key differences in attitude and outlook among these groups, with those who regard themselves as British most likely to support immigration and EU membership, whereas those who regard themselves as English were more likely to oppose both.
Interestingly, however, both groups were similarly positive towards globalisation, with around a third of both groups thinking globalisation has been good for the UK, both for its economy and its culture.
“While some in metropolitan areas may fear a resurgent English nationalism in the hinterlands, our results suggest a need to avoid easy assumptions about those who feel more proud of their English national identity,” the researchers say.
There was also no detectable sense of remorse surrounding the Brexit vote, with 46% saying that the decision to leave was the right one, versus just 39% saying it had been a mistake.
