Why Labour’s mission on Breaking Down Barriers needs to be more than Levelling Up

In January last year Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer set out his missions for a Labour Government.  

The fifth mission – breaking down barriers to opportunity – appears to emulate what the Conservatives call ‘levelling up’, only under a new strapline. Both parties understand the power of social mobility and aspiration at the ballot box.  

But to truly break down barriers to opportunity, Labour must not repeat the mistakes the Conservatives made in developing the levelling up agenda.  

When former Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to ‘level up the country’ in 2019, hope was high for a future where opportunity was spread evenly and reached talent wherever it was. In the words of government at the time: the mission was to ‘end the geographical inequality which is such a striking feature of the UK’.  

However, nearly five years on, the levelling up agenda has failed on virtually every measure. The country remains one of the lowest-performing in the OECD in terms of social mobility, and recent data produced by the Centre for Cities think tank shows the UK as a whole has ‘levelled down’ because of a lack of growth. Despite increased state investment in the Northeast of England, and particularly Teesside – up and down the country we are facing greater interregional inequalities than ever before.

What lies behind this underperformance? There are many factors, including the rising cost of living versus wages post-pandemic and amidst global trade tensions. These macroeconomic causes are largely out of the government’s control.  

However, there have been some significant missed opportunities that Labour should be learning from in its mission to break down barriers. The greatest of them all: strategic engagement with businesses and the private sector.  

The case for using the private sector as a vehicle for levelling up/breaking down barriers is clear. With the private sector representing over 82% of the UK workforce, it is impossible to have a serious plan for equality of opportunity without involving them as delivery partner.

Another critical missed opportunity is the relegation of ‘levelling up’ to a single government department - the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities. To be truly effective, the brief needs to run through every single department as a key priority, and accountability needs to sit at the highest levels of government.

Today, Labour is in danger of making that same mistake by limiting the agenda to educational attainment. They need to go further. Only a holistic approach that addresses social barriers people face in all aspects of their lives – education, health, income, justice, housing, culture – will have a chance of tackling this stubbornly worsening trend.

These are all linked. How can we hope to break down barriers to opportunity for as long as there’s a 27-year difference in life expectancy between a postcode in Blackpool and a postcode in Kensington? Nor can we make progress when the most deprived are further punished by paying more for essential goods and services – this is called the ‘poverty premium’, which is currently estimated at £490 for low-income households across the UK.

At the Purpose Coalition, we have begun work to identify these barriers. Our framework of 14 Purpose Goals each represent one of a range of social challenges - including tackling the digital divide, widening access to savings, improving health & wellbeing, and opening up job opportunities post-16. Crucially, each of these goals is backed by business and by organisations with both the means and the access to direct their investments to the right places.

Keir Starmer has the chance to turn his mission on breaking down barriers into a truly transformational strategy for the country. By pulling it out of its narrow remit and running it through every single department of government, he could end the trend of ‘levelling down’ and create a fairer society from the ground up – where opportunity reaches talent everywhere.