>West Wales and the Valleys was one of the two regions of the UK singled out for special financial assistance by Brussels, and the issue arises of what happens to funding now that the UK has left the EU.
>[Economist] Jones doubts whether the current incarnation of levelling up will be any more successful than past attempts, due to the inherent tension between the desire to help people find a future and the free movement of capital.
>“The Welsh government doesn’t control the economic levers. Nobody in these global corporations cares about Wales,” he says, suggesting the way forward is to a steady-state economy “where the maximisation of shareholder value is not the driving force for the majority of economic activity”.
>“We are crap at capitalism in Wales, so let’s do something different and try to improve the wellbeing of the people,” says Jones.
>
>The Welsh government says it is being short-changed and would be receiving more funding had Brexit never happened. The UK government says it is fully replacing EU funding to the regions.
>It is not just the amount of funding that is at issue, but the way it is allocated.
>Meirion Thomas, the Wales director of the Industrial Communities Alliance, an umbrella body for local authorities in old manufacturing and mining heartlands, says London’s insistence on competitive bidding for funds is a mistake.
>“Under the old system, overall objectives were set in Brussels but priorities were decided locally,” he says. “The emphasis on strategic projects became inbuilt in local authorities and the university sector.
>“With levelling-up funding, that has disappeared. Forcing local authorities to bid against each other for cash prevents partnership and a more strategic approach.”
Some form of “levelling up” has been proposed by every government since Thatcher. The fundamental problem with “levelling up” is that a significant number of our communities are completely pointless. They were set up around coal mining and now coal mining is an irrelevant industry.
At some point, we’re going to have to confront the cold, hard truth: these communities aren’t coming back, and keeping them on life support via government cash injections is just prolonging the inevitable. There is no silver bullet that can revive these economies because an economic system that rewards completely unproductive communities would be insane.
It would be far more effective to spend the money on a resettlement and retraining scheme that would move people from dead communities to places where they can thrive.
Surely this is an example of capitalism working as intended?
A lot of these valley towns have lost their economic usefulness and are therefore being forgotten.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but seems like this is capitalism working.
Capitalism has gone service-based these days. Manual jobs still exist but those are in short supply as companies have shifted them to poorer countries to exploit the people there. It’s a harsh reality but those jobs could be done from anywhere in the UK and cannot do much to save old mining towns and villages, not when companies are fixated on having main offices in or near London.
Places like this want levelling up, but not change…
How about we stick a rail link there’s and build 10 flat blocks that are 8 stories tall right on top of it…. No, you don’t like that… it’s ‘gentrification’ and upsetting locals… well then, decline it is then
5 comments
Locals leery of “levelling-up” funding:^1
>West Wales and the Valleys was one of the two regions of the UK singled out for special financial assistance by Brussels, and the issue arises of what happens to funding now that the UK has left the EU.
>[Economist] Jones doubts whether the current incarnation of levelling up will be any more successful than past attempts, due to the inherent tension between the desire to help people find a future and the free movement of capital.
>“The Welsh government doesn’t control the economic levers. Nobody in these global corporations cares about Wales,” he says, suggesting the way forward is to a steady-state economy “where the maximisation of shareholder value is not the driving force for the majority of economic activity”.
>“We are crap at capitalism in Wales, so let’s do something different and try to improve the wellbeing of the people,” says Jones.
>
>The Welsh government says it is being short-changed and would be receiving more funding had Brexit never happened. The UK government says it is fully replacing EU funding to the regions.
>It is not just the amount of funding that is at issue, but the way it is allocated.
>Meirion Thomas, the Wales director of the Industrial Communities Alliance, an umbrella body for local authorities in old manufacturing and mining heartlands, says London’s insistence on competitive bidding for funds is a mistake.
>“Under the old system, overall objectives were set in Brussels but priorities were decided locally,” he says. “The emphasis on strategic projects became inbuilt in local authorities and the university sector.
>“With levelling-up funding, that has disappeared. Forcing local authorities to bid against each other for cash prevents partnership and a more strategic approach.”
^1 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/03/were-crap-at-capitalism-we-need-something-different-the-battle-for-economic-revival-in-the-welsh-valleys
Some form of “levelling up” has been proposed by every government since Thatcher. The fundamental problem with “levelling up” is that a significant number of our communities are completely pointless. They were set up around coal mining and now coal mining is an irrelevant industry.
At some point, we’re going to have to confront the cold, hard truth: these communities aren’t coming back, and keeping them on life support via government cash injections is just prolonging the inevitable. There is no silver bullet that can revive these economies because an economic system that rewards completely unproductive communities would be insane.
It would be far more effective to spend the money on a resettlement and retraining scheme that would move people from dead communities to places where they can thrive.
Surely this is an example of capitalism working as intended?
A lot of these valley towns have lost their economic usefulness and are therefore being forgotten.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing, but seems like this is capitalism working.
Capitalism has gone service-based these days. Manual jobs still exist but those are in short supply as companies have shifted them to poorer countries to exploit the people there. It’s a harsh reality but those jobs could be done from anywhere in the UK and cannot do much to save old mining towns and villages, not when companies are fixated on having main offices in or near London.
Places like this want levelling up, but not change…
How about we stick a rail link there’s and build 10 flat blocks that are 8 stories tall right on top of it…. No, you don’t like that… it’s ‘gentrification’ and upsetting locals… well then, decline it is then
You move to jobs, not the other way around…