Levelling-up should include societal aspects of prosperity

The Legatum Institute has published the UK Prosperity Index report to provide a comprehensive assessment of institutional, economic, and social well-being across the country’s 379 local authorities.

The Index, which will be used to track the government’s ‘levelling-up agenda’ and can help leaders identify what is going well and what is going wrong in every area of the UK, highlights the considerable variation in prosperity between and within regions.

It shows that the most prosperous regions of the UK are the South East, South West, and East of England, and, equally, the most prosperous local authorities are concentrated in the South East. These are Wokingham, Waverley, Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, and Woking.

Conversely, the least prosperous regions are Greater Manchester, West Midlands (Metropolitan), and Yorkshire and The Humber, whilst the the least prosperous local authorities are distributed across the north of England (Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Oldham) and Scotland (Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire).

Additionally, the Index finds that the UK’s natural environment has improved, with reductions in emissions as well as reduced exposure to air pollution, an increase in the number of tress being planted, and a larger proportion of waste being recycled. Moreover, the UK has continued to improve its infrastructure, especially transport and communications, with average internet download speeds rising nine-fold from 8 Mbps to 72 Mbps over the last decade.

However, the Index also reveals that the country’s prosperity is currently being undermined by a deterioration in aspects that lie outside of the traditional focus on GDP, infrastructure, and transport. These include the safety and security of local communities, people’s physical and mental health, conditions for local enterprise, key aspects of social capital, and, to a lesser extent, the effectiveness of local governance.

It shows that the nation’s safety and security has deteriorated over the last decade, including in 13 out of 15 regions and three quarters of all local authorities. Additionally, thalth has deteriorated across all regions of the UK over the last decade, and the country’s health systems were simply not ‘pandemic ready’.

The Legatum Institute also warns that there has been a marked deterioration in the quality of local conditions for businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors since 2011 and that key aspects of social capital are deteriorating.

Matthew Goodwin, director of the Legatum Institute’s Centre for UK Prosperity, said: “This Index is the most ambitious and comprehensive assessment of prosperity across the country to date. With detailed data on all boroughs and council areas across the four nations of the UK, it is a transformational tool that can help policy makers and influencers target their interventions more effectively on the journey towards greater prosperity. The Index will be updated annually, allowing citizens, businesses, local authorities, regions, and national government to track their progress over time and hold decision-makers to account.

“The holistic and rigorous approach we have taken has allowed us to identify issues that have previously been missed in the discussion about how to level-up the country. Genuine prosperity is about far more than building a strong economy or giving people bridges and trains. The Index shows that we also need to invest in areas such as safety and security, health, enterprise conditions, and family and community life if we are to see all citizens, neighbourhoods, and communities reach their full potential.

“This is why, while we support the focus on levelling-up regions that have historically been left behind, we believe that the government can be bolder. We need to do more than just level-up left behind areas to the status-quo. We should be much more ambitious and aim to reach entirely new heights by creating the conditions that will put all regions and communities into the fast lane toward greater and long-lasting prosperity.”