Simon Clarke MP 'ready to be judged' on levelling up success in Wolverhampton
"It's much better than my London office," says Simon Clarke MP, surveying the scene from the top floor of his department's regional headquarters at Wolverhampton's i9 building.
The Levelling Up Secretary is in the city for the first time in his life, and looking out at the new railway station and the i10 development opposite he says the place "feels like it's on the up".
Wolverhampton is a trailblazer area for levelling up, Boris Johnson's key policy from 2019 that aims to reduce regional inequalities and drive investment in 'left behind' areas, mainly in the Midlands and the north.
New PM Liz Truss has vowed to honour that pledge, but in almost three years since its launch the results have been less than spectacular.
While government investment has risen, it is yet to be matched by a private sector wary after Covid and now facing rather grim economic forecasts.
Analysis published in May showed the city – as well as the rest of the Black Country and most of Staffordshire – had fallen further behind London and the South East in key metrics such as wages and opportunity.
The pressure to deliver is not lost on Mr Clarke, who knows that making headway on issues including housing and key infrastructure projects could well help to turn the tide for a new government already on the rocks following the calamitous 'mini-budget'.
"Levelling up was one of the main reasons the government was elected," he tells me, before pointing out that a lot of the work has been delayed by "two years of absolute hell with Covid".
"I do think it is really important that we reaffirm to people that we are deadly serious about this," he said, adding that funding streams that have benefited Wolverhampton such as the Towns Fund (£25m), the Future High Streets Fund (£16m) would continue.
"It is really important that people have confidence that this financial support is going to be maintained, because it is critical that we use it to leverage private sector investment as well.
"This isn't about government doing it all on it's own. That wouldn't be desirable or affordable. We need to give the private sector confidence to come in and be good partners alongside us knowing that we're going to be putting our money where our mouth is."
Mr Clarke said the West Midlands was the "perfect" location for a levelling up headquarters as it reflects the policy "in all its different manifestations".
"It's a cultural question, a social question, an economic question and a transport question – all of those issues are interwoven in somewhere like Wolverhampton.
"It's about showing that not just people's life chances but the actual physical environment can change for the better."
The 38-year-old is the fourth MP to hold the position since Robert Jenrick cut the ribbon on the Wolverhampton office in September 2021.
He was sacked just days later and replaced by Michael Gove, who in turn was booted out for disloyalty this past July before Greg Clark performed a two-month cameo.
A staunch Brexiteer who backed Boris Johnson to the bitter end, Mr Clarke is now considered a Truss loyalist having supported the PM from the very early stages of her leadership campaign.
He says he wants to build on the "good work" of his predecessors and has outlined a number of key challenges ahead.
He describes "weaker" transport links outside London as a "real drag on growth", and said he wants to help drive through the completion of projects such as the Wednesbury-Brierley Hill Metro extension, which has been hampered by a £300m funding shortfall.
"You can't level up unless you have the right transport infrastructure," he said.
Mr Clarke has also made a commitment to "unlock the housebuilding conundrum" which has proved to be a bane for Tory administrations for years.
In what he calls a "major intervention" in the coming weeks he will announce in parliament his plans to "build more homes where they are needed" while protecting the green belt.
"Top down" targets will be scrapped – although he conceded that he would maintain a "level of ambition" to build 300,000 homes a year – while planning reforms will also be launched.
As a 'Red Wall' MP, who turned his majority in the former Labour stronghold of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland from around 1,000 to more than 11,000 at the last general election, Mr Clarke sees parallels with his own constituency and parts of the Black Country.
He conceded that his party's fortunes had hit a downturn since the peak of winning the Hartlepool by-election in May 2021, and said he understood why local MPs would be concerned about losing their seats.
"These things do go up and down," he said. "If we are to stay in our jobs we need other people to stay in theirs, so delivery is the test here.
"People put their trust in us to make Brexit mean something. That means levelling up their life chances and in that sense the mission hasn't changed.
"Without underplaying the seriousness of the moment – because this is a serious moment for the Government – I also think that where we are today in the polls is just not the question. The question is where we are by the next general election.
"That still gives us two clear years, hopefully without anything as dramatic as Covid coming along – and I think most people would say to hinder us from delivery – to make a difference.
"That is the test against which we will be judged."
