Levelling up: why we can't leave London behind

The government has allocated nearly £5 billion of funding for regeneration projects across the UK, from railways and faster broadband to shifting whole government departments out of London and across the country.

There’s certainly work to be done to address regional inequalities – around 40% of the UK’s economic activity is accounted for by London and South-East England.  But if levelling up is truly aiming to make opportunity fair, it can’t forget those missing out on access to opportunity in the capital.

In Tower Hamlets, where one of London Met’s campuses is based, some who work in the City of London enjoy some of the highest standards of living anywhere in the world. The area itself produced an economic output of £29.7 billion in 2017 – more than Birmingham or the City of Manchester.

The data on inequality

• The vast majority of jobs (86%) are filled by non-residents. The median weekly earnings of £870 for workers is the second highest in the UK, but residents earn significantly less – £90 per week on average.
• 31% of children in the borough live below the national poverty line, while 40% of primary school pupils and 54.7% of secondary school pupils in Tower Hamlets’ schools are eligible for the Pupil Premium, a grant aimed at raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.
• Tower Hamlets is ranked as the 16th most ethnically diverse local authority in England, but the employment gap between BAME residents and white residents in the borough stands at 27%.

Across the country, organisations are ready to respond to advance opportunities, improve quality of life and boost the national economy. But allocating funding to achieve this should give those in need in London the same consideration.

London’s universities have a role to play in ensuring their communities don’t get left behind by the levelling up agenda – and they’re stepping up to the challenge.

Kings College London, through its #KingsLocal initiative, is building stronger relationships with local authorities and working with local organisations and community leaders to respond to their shared challenges.

The University of West London has founded the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up (CEILUP), which produces policy research to shape approaches to addressing inequalities.

And the University of East London has launched the Institute for Connected Communities, which works with some of the poorest, most marginalised and mobile communities in the UK to promote health and reduce inequalities.

The London Met Lab

London Met’s own civic network, the London Met Lab, uses our academic expertise to co-design solutions to the challenges which disproportionately affect our communities. Recent projects have included:

• the evaluation of a violence reduction scheme in Tower Hamlets
• research on the BAME Employment Gap in Islington
• a winter resilience study for North Central London NHS partnership
• 840 trees planted at a local inner city farm
• the development of new initiatives to promote the London Living Wage in Islington, and to reduce health inequalities in Tower Hamlets.

Thousands of students and graduates move between London and other parts of the country every year, and the research and development that takes place in London’s universities in turn affects the rest of the United Kingdom.

For example, work by Imperial College London, University College London (UCL) and King’s College London, has been vital in understanding and tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. The innovations made at these universities, working with others around the country, continue to have a major impact on national health and the recovery of our economy.

Holding back opportunity from London holds back benefits for the rest of the country. We must tackle barriers to opportunity for communities outside the capital and the South East, but we also need to look at the deep inequalities that exist in London. Everyone deserves to benefit from levelling up.