Good morning.
The government’s signature policy was given some substance yesterday as the Levelling Up white paper was finally launched. Its 332 pages were proclaimed by the prime minister as “the most comprehensive, ambitious plan of its kind that the country has ever seen”. It told of 12 “bold” missions, enshrined in law, that would hoik Britain up by its bootstraps. Oh, and 20 “King’s Cross-style regeneration projects” to boot, starting with Wolverhampton and Sheffield.
Exciting stuff! But the industry was less than impressed by the grand statements, criticising the lack of new money, the vagueness of the 12 missions and the naive call to produce”King’s Cross-style” developments out of thin air. As Liz Peace says: “You can’t just conjure up out of nothing a mega regeneration development.”
(Even the residents of Wolverhampton are sceptical about that one.)
This could become Mission Impossible 12, writes EG’s editor, as the levelling up paper is long on laudable intentions but lacking in substance.
After all, adds HTA Design chair Ben Derbyshire, the total amount of money being promised to level up the country is about the same as the sum written off over PPE deals. And it looks like that will be too little and too late.
Even the former Northern Powerhouse minister, Jake Berry, writing in The Times(£), says that more money is needed for the white paper to be worth the paper it is written on.
Others fear levelling down, with essential funding diverted away from areas where it is still needed – as with plans to cut the share of life science funding(£) for Oxbridge to create a “Midlands Silicon Valley”…
… While Glasgow will become the Silicon Valley north of the border(£). And host the House of Lords. Unless that goes to York.
Confused? Conveniently, both The FT(£) and The Guardian have helpful little guides.
Need a shorter summary? Well, The Guardian says the white paper is “anaemic and inadequate to the task”. And The FT’s(£) verdict is best summed up by the phrase “a stubbornly ill-defined set of policy objectives”.
Or, to quote Liz Peace again: “I still haven’t the faintest idea what they really mean by levelling up.”
Meanwhile, CBI boss Tony Danker(£) will warn in a speech today that it is all for nothing anyway, as the government is pushing the UK into a “low-growth, high-tax trap” that will lead to a “lost decade”.
Don’t worry though – there is investment coming from somewhere! Overseas investors will pour £60bn into the central London office market over the next five years – the highest five-year total in two decades – with US investors taking the lead.
And London’s office fringe is steadily becoming a new core, writes Knight Frank’s Philip Hobley, as the South Bank continues to rise.
Housing developers are bracing for further hikes in build costs, according to a new survey. Some 92% of housebuilders say they expect costs to rise, with 25% predicting significant increases.
And Moorfield Group has teamed up with Funding House for a £300m foray into co-living called Zennor.
Glencore and Britishvolt(£), the gigafactory developer, are to build a plant(£) in Kent to recycle lithium-ion batteries…
… But Nestle will close its sweet factory near Newcastle under plans to make Fruit Pastilles in the Czech Republic and Toffee Crisps in Poland.
And finally, the metaverse(£) may be paying off for some, but it hasn’t yet for Facebo… sorry! Meta. The social media giant wants to claim a big stake of the next iteration of the internet, and has big plans to become a virtual, digital landlord. All of which it told investors in an excruciating pitch video last year. You know the one – where Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar looked slightly more real than Mark Zuckerberg? As post-close trades put the share price down 20%, it seems investors would have liked a bit less talk about the new name and the wonders of the ‘verse, and a bit more about the lack of growth and falling market share.
