LABOUR set out five key plans for “levelling up”  today as new research shows communities are worse off after a decade of Tory rule.

The five Labour tests cite good local jobs, thriving high streets, improved transport, digital and infrastructure connectivity for towns and villages, stronger local decision-making and safer town centres.

Shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said the plans would “truly change the settlement of our country back in favour of those who built it.”

Ms Nandy said: “The places that used to power our country have only got the crumbs from the table.

“That has created huge inequalities which Labour will focus on fixing.”

She said for levelling up to “truly deliver the government must meet the ambitions people have for our communities.”

Ms Nandy highlighted the decades of low growth under the Tories and accused them of being “the party of low growth and high taxes” and of holding Britain back.

New research by the party show that local communities are still millions of pounds worse off since the Tories came to power in 2010.

Labour says that virtually every area of England has received less funding on average since 2018 than they received from regional development funds.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove trailed yesterday the government’s plans for a £1.5 billion fund to build new homes and other facilities on 20 derelict sites in England.

Ms Nandy dismissed the Tory proposals as “very small beer” which “completely short-changed” hard-pressed communities across the country.

She told Sky News yesterday that she welcomed “the small pot of money” that the Tories have announced for 20 places.

Ms Nandy said the money proposed by the Tories represented “a small refund on the amount that we’ve lost since the Prime Minister took office and I think those 20 places will be glad to have every penny back.”

Mr Gove announced that Wolverhampton and Sheffield would be the first cities to receive the funding in what the Tories are hailing as a “radical regeneration programme.”

This is the first announcement from the Tories’ long-awaited levelling up white paper, which is expected to be published this week.

But Ms Nandy described the government’s approach as “downright insulting,” adding that the white paper “frankly doesn’t appear to be worth the paper that it’s written on.”