‘Levelling Up – What Now?’ – ideas for tackling inequalities under a new government

A new publication examining the challenges faced by the Labour government in addressing place-based inequalities has been released. 

‘Levelling Up - What Now?’ -  contains 13 chapters together with a foreword from Andy Westwood, Professor of Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester. 

Each chapter builds on work undertaken as part of the CAPE project, funded by Research England and including The University of Manchester, University College London, the University of Cambridge, the University of Nottingham, Northumbria University, NESTA, the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, and the Government Office for Science.  

“Here at The University of Manchester, we concentrated on bringing academics and policymakers closer together in order to better understand local and regional inequality and how we might find ways to tackle it,” Andy explains.   

“It took us to places in Greater Manchester, including in the city itself and to nearby towns such as Oldham, where we helped the local council and GMCA to conduct a year-long economic review. We also travelled much further afield - to the US and Germany to learn from and with colleagues facing similar challenges in post-industrial places. CAPE colleagues also worked in the North East of England, in West Yorkshire as well as in the East Midlands and Cambridge. Some of our experiences and recommendations are summarised in the chapters in this collection.”  

In a characteristically thoughtful foreword, Andy reminds readers that, prior to the General Election in July 2024, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee decreed that the then Conservative Government was ‘unable to provide any compelling examples of what Levelling Up funding has delivered so far.’   

He writes: “While the Labour government has decided to abandon the term ‘levelling up,’ it is clear that they will not be able to do the same about regional and local inequality itself. There are simply too many social, economic and political consequences if they do. But whatever any new agenda or narrative sets out, addressing local and regional inequality will remain a huge – and long term - policy challenge for any government in the UK.” 

On the back of several long-term projects and ideas from CAPE, ‘Levelling Up - What Now?’ provides a series of policy suggestions and lessons to better understand and address these challenges.  They are offered not just to ministers and officials in the Labour government in Westminster, but also to English mayors, existing and emerging English Combined Authorities, and to individual local authorities.  

“All are predicated on the idea that spatial inequality is one of the UK’s biggest and most stubborn challenges and that for a range of both economic and political reasons, it must be tackled over the short and longer term,” Andy continues.    

“To do so, government should pay attention to a series of issues that these essays explore and offer solutions on – from governance and accountability to basic infrastructure and local industrial policies.  

“Our intention is that they help to inform an agenda and a focus for national and local policymakers who even if unconvinced by the term ‘levelling up,’ can’t easily avoid any of the economic or political challenges that spatial inequality has created.” 

‘Levelling Up - What Now?’ is available to read via this link.