Read: Guy Opperman: What levelling-up means to me

Each edition we ask leading political figures, of all parties, to give us their own opinion on the levelling up agenda. 

This edition we are joined by Guy Opperman MP, the Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion. Guy has been a Conservative MP since 2010 and was appointed to Government in 2017. Guy has a particular interest in the role investors and pension funds can take in the wider ESG agenda. Here he gives us his take on levelling up:

When I stood for election in 2010, there was only one Conservative MP in the whole of the North East.

Whilst much of the Conservative Party’s traditional support base was in the South and Midlands, I knew that the route to a Conservative majority would run through the North of England.

So whilst most people were settling down to watch the Olympics, in 2012, I decided to make it my mission to find out exactly what people want from their politicians – whether that be local councillors, their MP, or the government.  

I walked from Sheffield to Scotland – right through what is now the so-called red wall – and spoke to hundreds of people in churches, mosques, shops, pubs, B&B’s and at community events across the country. The message was loud and clear, but it was not at all that different to the kind of things I would hear at my constituency surgeries week in, week out. People wanted to see investment in their local community, safer streets, more money for our schools, and better opportunities for our young people. Put simply, they wanted to make their local community an even better place to live; they wanted to see levelling up.

Levelling is this Government’s key agenda. But what does it mean? For me, it means rebalancing our economy so that we don’t only focus on major cities – whether that be London or Newcastle – but also our towns, like Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle in my constituency.

In Northumberland, the process of levelling up education has been my priority. It has taken almost a decade, but we are finally getting there. When I was elected, our whole region had suffered from decades of underinvestment. Not a single high school in my constituency had been rebuilt or refurbished in the preceding 13 years.

I made it my mission to secure more money and better buildings for our local schools. It took many difficult meetings to make the case. But some of our schools – quite literally – had holes in the roof.

I worked closely with the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove to rebuild Prudhoe Community High School, which was in desperate need of repair, and was finally opened in 2016 by Justine Greening. Justine and I then worked together to deliver a new, fairer funding formula for our local schools, ensuring children in my constituency had access to the same opportunities as those in larger, inner city schools.  

Since 2016, our mission to level-up education has gone even further. When pupils return to their desks in September, every high school across Tynedale and Ponteland will have been rebuilt or refurbished. We have made real progress – and it is a clear example of levelling-up in practice.

The government’s levelling up agenda is moving ahead at pace. Whilst the Coronavirus has presented huge challenges for us. As we rebuild, we must use the opportunity to do things better.

The Chancellor’s Budget marked the first step on that journey. The new Levelling Up Fund will give MP’s like me the opportunity to champion projects in our local communities that will help create new opportunities for our young people. Freeports – a project which I helped to develop back in 2017 – has finally become a reality in a post-Brexit world, and will help us drive investment to our regions. And the unprecedented levels of economic support have protected people’s jobs and businesses through this difficult time.

Levelling up is far more than just a slogan. We are already seeing it in practice. It is about spreading opportunity and rebalancing our economy, and that is our mission.