Boris Johnson’s speech in Coventry today demonstrated little in terms of substance, a leading academic has said, suggesting that ‘real levelling up would require a 'Solidarity Tax' on London and the South East’.

Economist, Professor Alex de Ruyter, Director of the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, expert said: “Boris Johnson’s speech in Coventry today demonstrated little of substance in terms of concrete measures to support levelling-up; Rather he chose to frame the debate in terms of local leadership being the “ketchup of catch-up.

“The Prime Minister has ignored the deep structural inequalities in the UK economy that have been exacerbated by spending cuts to public services over the past 10 years. Indeed, real levelling up would require a Solidarity Tax on London and the South-East of England.

“If Johnson is serious about learning from the German reunification experience then he should raise a Solidarity Tax like Germany has done to ‘level up’ the East of the country over a thirty-year period. In the UK this could be the imposition of a Land Value Tax that would preponderantly affect the South of England.”

In 2019, Germany raised €19.1bn. Scaled for the UK’s economy, that’s very roughly the equivalent of £12bn every single year for the next 30 years – a total of £360,000,000,000. This is the kind of order of magnitude about which we must be talking.

“In addition to this, Germany has state governments (Länder) that have significant powers independent of the Federal Government and they are entitled to a share of VAT and income tax. German states control their own stamp duty.”