Cllr Mieka Smiles is the Deputy Mayor and Executive Member for Culture and Communities on Middlesbrough Council.
Anyone who believes in levelling up should be very worried by the recent by-election results.
Labour might have re-laid a brick in the crumbled red wall in Wakefield but – although disappointing – it’s not that result that is making me the most anxious.
I was listening to a broadcast the other day talking about the Tiverton and Honiton Lib Dem win and the presenter happened to be from the area.
She said that the result shouldn’t be that surprising as it’s an area where people are becoming increasingly frustrated, wondering how to secure GP appointments and why schools aren’t being invested in.
In short what did levelling up – the Government’s central plank of policy – mean for them?
With a General Election slowly but surely approaching, this struck my heart with fear.
What of the seemingly countless Tiverton and Honiton-type areas with a similar outlook?
As a Middlesbrough girl, levelling up is the single most important political pledge affecting not only my family, friends and loved ones, but the future prosperity of our whole area.
Many will tell you that since we found those new Tory voters in 2019, there has never been such a buzz about the place and interest in our wider region of Teesside.
There have been a number of big wins – such as the relocation of around 700 civil servants to Darlington’s ‘Treasury Campus’ as well as the establishment of Europe’s first and biggest freeport.
And in Middlesbrough itself we have seen £36m investment through various levelling up pots of funding that will help reshape our town centre.
But for me our next levelling up challenge is now abundantly clear – and if we fail we risk losing it altogether.
We must hammer home that helping ‘left behind’ places like mine is not only the right thing to do morally but also very clearly demonstrate how success in this will affect each and every one of us: from Hartlepool to Honiton.
As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, we’re now focussing on long term goals and the gaps that desperately need closing.
Here in Middlesbrough we are at the top of many of the charts we don’t want to be at the top of – poor educational attainment, life expectancy, drug use and crime levels to name but a few.
So why is this important to residents in more affluent areas?
Well, in short – it costs money. Extraordinary amounts of taxpayers’ money.
As Lead Member for Children’s Services in Middlesbrough I can tell you that we have one of the highest rates of children in care in the whole country.
As well as being in care being far from the ideal place for children to be, it’s also eye-wateringly expensive – with the average residential placement costing us around £6,000 a week. One quote we had to home a child – and turned down – was a truly shocking £33,000 per week. Out of a yearly budget of around £100m a year, Children’s Services costs us around £36 million and rising.
This is just one example of how multiple factors of deprivation can manifest.
It is only by tackling the root and underlying causes of this that we can start to turn the tide and make sure that not only that a child being born in Middlesbrough will have the same opportunities as those born in a leafy southern constituency, but also on this kind of taxpayer spending that costs us all.
This is not about throwing caution to the wind with Government budgets and sending cash fluttering up to the North East – but about investing to save in an intelligent and diligent manner. A common practice in business. And it will mean more can be spent in other areas – on nurses, teachers and police everywhere.
Bringing communities like mine in line with UK counterparts will not only help lessen the tax burden nationally but help boost our GDP by tens of billions of pounds each year and empower new businesses, new industries and ensure untold jobs.
I am a passionate advocate for levelling up, but believe that if we are to maintain its momentum into the next election and beyond then we need to start really making it matter to everyone.