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Greg Clark appointed levelling up secretary during Conservative mutiny that ends in Sunak or Truss (or Johnson?) as Prime Minister Greg Clark has been appointed Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities following the sacking of Michael Gove by outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson. The MP for Tunbridge Wells has previously held ministerial positions as Secretary of State in the Department of Communities and Local Government, Business Secretary and Universities, Science and Cities Minister. He served in both David Cameron’s and Theresa May’s governments. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) was hit hard in the wave of ministerial resignations in protest against Boris Johnson’s disastrous reign, with three local goverment associated junior ministers throwing in the towel. Kemi Badenoch (a local government/equalities minister who resigned on July 6 and went on to launch an unsuccessful bid for the Tory leadership), Neil O’Brien (known as ‘Mr Levelling Up’, resigned in the same letter as Badenoch) and Stuart Andrew (resigned as housing minister on July 6, but unlike Badenoch and O’Brien was offered a ministerial job by Johnson just two days after he resigned. He accepted, and is currently Minister of State for Prisons and Probation. Replacing Andrew as housing minister is MP for Nuneaton, Arley and Hartshill, Marcus Jones, a former council leader who
has defended the government’s controversial expansion of permitted development rights, and has described himself as “not antidevelopment”. Following news of his levelling-up appointment, Greg Clark tweeted: “We have a duty to ensure that the country has a functioning government in the weeks ahead. Having been Secretary of State at the Communities department before, I will do my best to provide stability, good governance and accountability to Parliament at this important time.” Clark’s first job was to publish the contract which turns the Building Safety Repairs Pledge - in which signatories pledge to fix critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres which they have developed or refurbished over the last 30 years - into a legally binding document. Clark expects it to be signed by all 48 pledging organisations ‘within a month’. Meanwhile, the race to become PM, which started with 11 hopefuls, has now been whittled down to former Chancellor Rishi Sunak and current Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after ‘clever money bet’ Penny Mordaunt fell at the fifth hurdle, missing out by eight votes on taking her leadership proposals to the 175,000-odd party members. The final result is expected on September 5. Until then, Johnson continues to make a number of political and
REGENERATION
WORKFORCE SKILLS
Dept for Environment to consult on development grants for brownfield sites
LGA calls for devolved employment and skills funding
In a bid to speed up development, the government has announced that Councils across England could receive grants to help transform underused and derelict sites. The grants would refund the costs of Landfill Tax where it acts as a barrier to redeveloping brownfield and contaminated land. Current Enironment Minsiter Lord Benyon said: “Landfill tax has done a fantastic job in preventing unnecessary waste – but it’s important it doesn’t act as a barrier to regeneration.” A four-week Call for Evidence will seek views on the design of a scheme to support councils and how to ensure a grant scheme would not undermine the waste hierarchy or incentivise illegal dumping. Applicants would need to demonstrate that use of landfill is reasonably necessary. READ MORE
The Local Government Association says that the number of people improving their skills or finding work could increase by 15 per cent if councils had more control over employment and skills provision. Analysis by the Learning and Work Institute found that about £20 billion is spent by central government on at least 49 national employment and skills related schemes or services in England, managed by nine Whitehall departments and agencies. This includes programmes such as the Levelling Up Fund, Towns Fund and Help to Grow, as well as support to get people into work and training including Restart, Bootcamps and the National Careers Service. The LGA says that the disjointed nature of these schemes makes it difficult to target and join up provision for learners, unemployed people, career changers and businesses.The Association suggests that a single place-based fund, where powers over national employment and skills-related schemes are devolved to local leaders, could better support unemployed people into work and improve residents’ skills, and makes more sense than councils bidding
Current Secretary of State for Levelling Up Greg Clark
civil service appoinments while his time as Conservative leader comes to an end. Or does it? According to the Telegraph, over 1800 party members have demanded that he’s on the final ballot as a ‘third option’. Loyalist Andrew Cruddas, who sits in the Lords courtesy of Johnson, organised the signatories. He said: “We think it is only fair because Boris was the members choice back in 2019 and he has been constructively removed by the Parliamentary Party without referral to the membership. By adding Boris to the final ballot to make it a three-horse race means that the winner will have the backing of the membership.” READ MORE
for separate pots of funding for different projects, which cannot be used together. This would mean an end to competitive bidding and a move to long-term funding attached to specified, achievable targets. Mayor Marvin Rees, Chair of the LGA’s City Regions Board, said: “Every area has its own unique labour market including a mix of jobs, qualification levels, unemployment and vacancies. Councils and combined authorities want to unlock this potential talent, using their unrivalled local insight and knowledge to bring employers, training providers and jobseekers together with their proven track record in delivering more for less. “They are making the best of the national system, but the Government now needs to do its bit by joining up the system and working with us to plan and deliver more effective support to residents and businesses.” “Our research shows that councils can create new jobs and offer new training in our shared endeavour to level up the country.” READ MORE
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