‘The policymakers that live in London and stuff, they don’t really care about a small town like Rochdale. I just feel as though, for many years it’s been one of those forgotten things, we live under the shadow of Manchester.’
This quote, from a teaching assistant in his 30s with young children, is from a recent focus group we ran in Rochdale. But in truth it could easily be from any focus group in any town across provincial Britain over the past ten years, such is the national feeling of malaise.
The government is right to revive levelling up. Why it ever went away is baffling
People in these communities have long felt that their towns, high streets and public spaces are in decline. They have aired their frustrations loudly in that time. These were the areas that overwhelmingly voted to leave in the EU referendum; backed Boris Johnson’s Tories in 2019; and after ‘levelling up’ failed to materialise, unenthusiastically backed Keir Starmer’s promise of change in 2024.
One year on from that victory, few think much has changed. Our research finds these voters remain vehemently angry about the state of their local areas, and, frankly, the state of politics. Many say they simply will never vote again.
Yet, if rumours are to be believed, levelling-up is back. The Chancellor is supposedly about to change economic course and spend big, investing in left-behind towns and the red wall. Something the previous governments talked big on, but failed to do.
No doubt this is in no small part driven by the rise of Reform. Arguably Nigel Farage’s party is the only benefactor of years of government failure in these places. A woman in a focus group in Blackpool explained why she was voting Reform. ‘
‘I went from Conservatives to Labour. I feel like I’ve been gaslit and lied to and now I’m thinking, do you know what? Who hasn’t had a turn in office? I’m going Reform because they haven’t had a shot. And I’m not being funny, they can’t do any worse than what the past governments have done.’
The government is right to revive levelling up. Why it ever went away is baffling. The chance of voters backing an incumbent party while all they see locally is decline is vanishingly small. Still, there is understandably huge sceptisim that anything will improve. Visit any pub or cafe in these areas, as we regularly do for our work, and ask people if they think the government cares about their area, and you’ll likely be laughed out of the room.
This really is last chance saloon for levelling-up. Voters in these towns have been let down too many times. Promises and platitudes won’t cut it anymore. People need to see real changes. They’re not asking for the world. Clean streets, shops not left empty months on end, historic buildings not enveloped in graffiti.
Do this, and there’s a small chance the heat from Reform will start to feel a little less hot. More importantly, do this and people in provincial Britain might just finally start to feel the change they have been promised for so long.
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