Hartlepool: £974 per head since 2016
Hartlepool received £974 per head in levelling-up funding since 2016, compared to just £1–£3 per head for councils in London.
Snapshot · The Rest Is Politics
548. Burnham vs. Westminster and Trump’s Next Target
Explore episode
Jun 30, 2026
Where this was said
£19 Billion and Still Voting Reform: The Levelling-Up Paradox
At 23:10 · chapter starts 21:35
Rory cites a report by Public First director Damyanti Chatterjee, which tracked £19 billion in Tory and Labour national funding across schemes like the Levelling Up Fund, Shared Prosperity Fund, and Towns Fund. The results are counterintuitive and damning: Hartlepool received £974 per head since 2016 versus £1–£3 per head for London councils, yet it sent a Reform MP to Westminster. Across all areas studied — Hartlepool, Great Yarmouth, Ashfield, Boston — the correlation is the same: equalising for poverty, diversity, and all other indicators, the more levelling-up money an area received, the higher its Reform or Restore vote share. Alastair's interpretation is that Burnham's answer to this paradox is empowerment rather than top-down money delivery — but the challenge of sustaining that collaborative, non-partisan approach inside the adversarial House of Commons will be immense. [1] — Rory Stewart "£19 billion in levelling-up funds went to places like Hartlepool and Great Yarmouth. Those areas are now sending Reform MPs to Westminster.…" 22:38
The Total Place Experiment — Burnham's Forgotten Blueprint
In 2009, with Andy Burnham as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a programme called Total Place mapped all public spending in an area and built services around place-based outcomes. The financial crash and 2010 austerity killed it. Now Burnham may try to revive the same logic at the national level.
£19bn levelling-up funds spent
A Public First report found £19 billion in national funds were allocated by Tory and Labour governments to less affluent areas, yet those areas still swung heavily to Reform or Restore.
£19 Billion Spent, Still Voting Reform
£19 billion in levelling-up funds went to places like Hartlepool and Great Yarmouth. Those areas are now sending Reform MPs to Westminster. A Public First analysis found that, equalising for all other factors, more funding actually correlates with higher Reform vote share.
More funding → more Reform votes
The Public First analysis found a counterintuitive correlation: controlling for poverty and diversity, the more levelling-up money an area received, the more likely its residents were to vote Reform or Restore.
Burnham vs Westminster: Place Before Party
Burnham's entire brand is collaborative, non-partisan local governance — but the House of Commons is an adversarial bear pit. The real test isn't his vision, it's whether he can resist the daily pressure to play the Westminster game.
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