“They have to flesh out what levelling up actually means.”Ĭabinet ministers and government officials have privately admitted that in recent months there have been tensions between Downing Street and the Treasury over spending levels. “The cash has already been allocated,” said one Treasury source, referring to the spending review.
Multiple government sources aware of discussions about the white paper said the Treasury had made clear the assumption was that no new public money would be allocated. Last month, Mr Gove’s department received a real-term increase in budget, as did every department. However, the Levelling Up Fund was not expanded, remaining at £4.8 billion. Mr Gove was one of the last Cabinet ministers to conclude negotiations with the Treasury during the spending review, which set government department budgets for the next three years. One key challenge is to counter criticism that levelling up, a term Mr Johnson first championed before the December 2019 election, is more a slogan than a coherent vision for reform.
Michael Gove, who was moved to head up the newly renamed Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in the September reshuffle, is leading the reforms. The white paper on levelling up - broadly defined as the push to reduce geographical inequality in the UK - has been pencilled in for publication the week before Christmas. Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak appeared together at a business round-table event on Thursday as Downing Street said the two men’s teams “continue to work together very well at all levels”. On Thursday, Downing Street publicly backed a senior aide to Mr Sunak who was blamed for an anonymous quotation that criticised the Prime Minister’s political operation. The refusal to consider more cash for Mr Johnson’s flagship domestic reforms - which critics see as ill-defined - follows tensions between Number 10 and Number 11 over spending. Ministers and officials developing plans for the much-anticipated white paper are having to work with existing government projects and look at cost-neutral reforms. Rishi Sunak’s Treasury has made clear no new money will be spent on the relaunch of Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda next month, The Telegraph understands.
0 kommentar(er)
