Greater effort needed to achieve levelling up, says CBI boss

Economic growth must be evenly spread around the UK rather than concentrated in south-east England, the boss of the CBI business group will say.

CBI director general Tony Danker will argue that "levelling up" cannot be left to the free market.

Speaking at the CBI's annual conference today, he will stress the need for "high-valued" sectors, firms and jobs across the country.

The government said levelling up the UK was "at the very heart" of its agenda.

Climate targets provide the opportunity for a "new industrial revolution" in the UK, Mr Danker will tell the CBI conference, with new industries such as biotech offering "a shot at redemption".

"Levelling up so far has been a lot about politics and not enough about productivity, economics and business," Mr Danker told the BBC's Today programme.

"The reason we say there's a shot of redemption is that probably for five decades we've had no idea how to do that, but now we've got industries like clean and renewable energy, life sciences, cyber-security and they don't have to be based in the South East."

The CBI is concerned that old industries such as textiles in Lancashire, shipbuilding on the Clyde, and steel in Sheffield have been allowed to "die" since the 1980s.

"Here I am in the north-east of England - this could be the world's capital of renewable energy, if we got together, business and government, and worked out a plan to make it so," stressed Mr Danker, who was speaking from the Port of Tyne.

He added that people in the north of England were disappointed by the government's decision to scrap the Leeds leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line.

"The kind of thing government can do well is to think about transport, education and infrastructure alongside real economic strategies."

Mr Danker will tell the CBI conference that the headquarters of businesses are currently "too often based in London and the South East", with the UK operating as a "branch line economy", showing that the free market had failed to create prosperity across the country.

"Shuttered High Streets in towns and cities left behind. A loss of pride in place," he will say.

Mr Danker told the Today programme: "I do think we need a much firmer, more ambitious growth strategy from the government.

"At the end of the day, if we don't get growth up back to our pre-crisis, pre 2008 growth rates, what we're going to have is cuts to spending, rises in taxes, so growth has to be the North Star."

Firms should be encouraged to cluster in towns, and should have more power in decisions over local infrastructure and in coming up with economic strategies in regions, he said.

Mr Danker will confirm at the group's conference that the CBI is setting up a Centre for Thriving Regions to help co-ordinate the private sector's commitment to levelling up.

In a statement, the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities said: "Levelling up all corners of the UK is at the very heart of this government's agenda.

"By empowering local leaders, boosting living standards, improving public services, and regenerating our town centres and high streets we will ensure opportunity is spread more equally across the whole country."