Tory public spending skewed towards London

The Onward think tank has reported that the most growth-enhancing items of public spending, such as transport and housing, are skewed towards London and other regions that are already productive.

The analysis reveals that headline figures published by the Treasury conceal even wider variations in the kinds of spending most likely to get the local economy moving. In terms of transport, capital spending on transport in London was around £6,600 per head between 2007/8 and 2018/19. This was more than three times higher than in the East Midlands (£1,880) or South West (£1,980) and nearly three (2.75) times the average in the rest of England (£2,400).

Additionally, spending on affordable housing in the current (2016-21) programme is five times higher per head in the capital: £650 per head compared to £120 per head in the rest of England. Funding to unlock housing supply, including infrastructure to support private housing, is also concentrated in the south: the Housing Infrastructure Fund has spent £115 per head in the East of England, £97 in London, £95 in the South East, and £79 in the South West, compared to £10 in the West Midlands and just £4 in Yorkshire.

Onward also looked at innovation and culture. Taking direct government spending and research funding for universities together, London saw R&D funding per head nearly twice the UK average – £3,900 compared to a national average of £2,300 over the period 2001 to 2017. Furthermore, taking Arts Council England spending and direct DCMS funding of national institutions together, London received 47 per cent of the total spending in England over the period 2010/11 to 2017/18. Over the period culture funding per head in London was £687. This was nearly five times the average in the rest of England (£144).

The report makes a number of recommendations to the Treasury ahead of the upcoming Budget, including devolving transport powers to more places in England, reviewing the rationale for the regional distribution of its housing spending, ring fencing public sector R&D funding for regions and reviewing the Treasury’s Green Book methodology to take into account the relative as well as absolute returns to local economies from infrastructure projects and weighting Benefit Cost Ratios (BCRs) to account for the economic and social benefits of balanced growth.

Neil O’Brien MP, who co-authored the paper, said: “It is no wonder some parts of the country feel short-changed. For decades we have piled fertiliser on the parts of our economy that are already flourishing while refusing to water the seeds of growth elsewhere. The PM’s mission to level up poorer parts of the country is vital.  To change trends that have gone in the wrong direction for decades will need not a few tweaks, but taking a bazooka to the problem. That means we have to use every tool at our disposal, starting by rebalancing the types of spending that do most for growth towards poorer areas.”