Morecambe’s Eden North Levelling-Up bid to government put back by Boris Johnson turmoil

A deadline for Lancaster City Council to submit a Levelling-Up bid was last week and the council was all set to apply.

However, the deadline coincided with the shock sacking of government Levelling-Up minister Michael Gove MP, who held Eden North talks earlier this year, the mass resignation of other government MPs and Boris Johnson’s resignation.

The dramatic changes at Westminster have raised new questions about the government’s English regional policies and the ‘Levelling-Up’ agenda, which has been promoted in Mr Johnson’s era.

There are differences within the Conservative Party nationally on issues including regional policy, regeneration, use of tax and government spending.

Earlier this year, Lancaster City Council granted approval for Eden North’s planning application.

Morecambe MP David Morris has been a key advocate for Eden too and has lobbied the government to support it. He sent a letter to the government when planning permission was granted.

An announcement on government Levelling-Up funding for Eden North was hoped for this autumn.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Green councillor Caroline Jackson, leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “The Levelling-Up bid deadline was this week, just as all the developments were happening with Boris Johnson. Our bid was complete and ready to be submitted. But an online portal to submit the bid application was not up and the process was put back two weeks.

“Michael Gove has gone from his post. We met him in February for talks. He discussed Levelling-Up funds, looked at what had been proposed for Eden North and talked about various pots of money.”

The city council will submit the bid as soon as the portal is running, Coun Jackson said.

Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities Secretary Mr Gove was sacked by Boris Johnson by telephone on Wednesday night.

Earlier this year, Mr Gove produced a Levelling-Up white paper about regional issues, including English devolution deals. As part of that paper, a Lancashire devolution plan put forward by local councils for a ‘county deal’ without creating a new combined Lancashire authority or a new directly-elected regional mayor was given a cool response from the government.

Westminster has generally wanted combined authorities and regional mayors created in return for English devolution deals, as seen in Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City Region and Tees Valley in the north east.

In recent years, different Conservative governments have come up with a range of regional and regeneration ideas. The old regional development agencies were scrapped more than 10 years ago.

Since then, there has been the Northern Powerhouse under former chancellor George Osborne, a range of devolution deals and elected mayors, and the creation of local enterprise partnerships including in Lancashire, which include businesses and universities.

More recently, there has been the Levelling-Up agenda, town fund deals and town centre business improvement districts (BIDs). In BIDs, businesses in designated zones pay an ultra-local tax, called a levy, for improvements to boost town centres.