The government’s levelling up programme could lead to inequalities worsening rather than improving over the next 10-20 years, a new report has warned.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Left Behind Neighbourhoods says the most deprived areas in England – the very places levelling up is meant to help – are missing out because funding isn’t reaching them and there’s insufficient collaboration with local people.

Instead, projects are often dictated by Westminster and Whitehall without local involvement, meaning benefits don’t reach the areas that need it most, the APPG says.

The report follows an academic paper published this week by Kings College London and Harvard Kennedy School that revealed that former prime ministers John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown believe that decades of inconsistent regional policy have resulted in years of failure and widening inequality.

The report is the first in-depth enquiry to actually explore how the government’s current approach is working on the ground, the APPG says. The group spent over a year talking to those that levelling up is meant to help, taking evidence from people in some of the most challenged areas of England, known as ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods.

To be successful and sustainable, levelling up must reflect local needs and circumstances – it can’t be something that is ‘done to people’, with decisions over investment and priorities made by Whitehall and simply imposed on communities, the report says.

The APPG is making a number of recommendations to address these issues, including:

• Faster progress should be made on creating a community wealth fund, enabling long-term funding over 10-15 years for left behind neighbourhoods
• As ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods have historically missed out on their fair share of public funding from bidding rounds, funds should be allocated to them on a non-competitive basis
• The government should commit to ‘double devolution’ – in other words, devolution below the level of combined and local authorities, giving decision-making powers and resources to the residents of ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods
• Introduction of an enhanced community right to buy, which would help communities save local assets like pubs, clubs and green spaces and support the provision of new local amenities and facilities
• The current proposal for a UK Community Investment Bank could also help accelerate the impact of these expanded powers, offering flexible loans at favourable terms to community groups.

Paul Howell, MP for Sedgefield and Conservative co-chair of the APPG, said: “We welcome the government’s commitment to levelling up, but the programme needs to support ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods by design rather than chance, account for changing economic circumstances, and ensure a redistribution of power and funding, if we are to see these neighbourhoods become less left behind over the next ten to twenty years.

“Without corrective action, levelling up will not make a difference in the areas that need it most.  We are therefore at a crucial moment for the most challenged neighbourhoods, and decisions made in the next few years will define their prospects for decades to come.  Decisive action is now urgently needed to save the levelling up agenda from the strategic drift which threatens to waste the significant political will which has been generated in recent years.”

Dame Diana Johnson DBE, MP for Kingston-upon-Hull North and Labour co-chair of the APPG, said: “So far, the government’s approach has not sufficiently recognised the scale of the challenge in ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, nor does it acknowledge the innovative and community-led approaches our inquiry has found are most likely to make a difference in these places. In fact, the design of levelling up policies and funding pots risks overlooking the specific needs of these neighbourhoods, and could even produce worse outcomes in the very places levelling up is supposed to help.

 “To be successful and sustainable, levelling up must reflect local needs and circumstances – it can’t be something that is ‘done to people’, with decisions over investment and priorities made by Whitehall, or indeed the town hall, and simply imposed on communities.

 “The recommendations in our report are designed to put these neighbourhoods, and their residents, front and centre of a reformed approach to levelling up so that the aims we all want to see can be realised.”

The report cites the Big Local Scheme as an example of how a community wealth fund could work in practice.  This scheme provides at least £1 million to each of 150 communities in England.  The funding is long term over 10-15 years and enables residents to spend funding on their own terms and in their own time on the projects they judge to be most important to them.

 Barbara Slasor, community development lead for the Gaunless Gateway Big Local partnership in County Durham, and expert witness in the APPG’s final inquiry session into levelling up ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, said: “Levelling up should empower communities to create the change they want to see in their local areas. To do this, we must ensure the most deprived neighbourhoods receive the support they require, with power, resources, and trust placed in their hands. Their future hinges on our present actions and we can’t afford to waste the momentum we’ve built.

 “With my involvement in the Big Local programme in Bishop Auckland, I can personally attest that consistent investment holds the potential for substantial transformation. It’s imperative that communities have a say in local decisions, services, and facilities to bring about genuine change. It’s high time to empower residents to shape their own future.”

Read the full report here.