Industry trade body Propertymark has given the government’s levelling up White Paper a tepid response, suggesting the plans launched earlier this week by housing secretary Michael Gove may be more soundbite than solid solutions.

Its policy manager Daryl McIntosh (main pic) has released a statement saying that, although the organisation appreciates Gove’s commitment to give local authorities and mayors more power, “the White Paper commits no new funding in order to achieve its objectives and provides no clear strategy for delivery”.

He goes on to days that: “The White Paper’s acknowledgement of the significance of the devolved administrations in achieving its ambitions is welcome, and the intention for more collaborative approaches to tackle inequalities is encouraging to see.

“Education, health and housing are key to ‘levelling up’, and devolved governments must be afforded the resources to implement place-based policies that will meaningfully enhance communities and generate economic growth.”

Propertymark

The White Paper, which runs to just shy of 300 pages, includes many of the measures expected within the promised Renting Reform White Paper which is now not due until April or May, Gove told parliament yesterday.

The housing secretary was also mauled by Labour’s shadow  Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary Lisa Nandy who launched a robust attack on Gove’s levelling-up announcement, accusing the government of “fiddling the figures” and “cobbling together a shopping list of recycled policies”.

She added: “The system is completely broken and the government is out of ideas…these are recycled watered-down ambitions with some announcements that are so old – one is from 2008.”