Read: If the Tories dial down levelling up they risk handing the initiative to Labour

As the Conservative leadership race enters its most important phase, there is increasing speculation over how committed the next prime minister will be to levelling up the United Kingdom. 

Rightly so, given the importance of the programme to Boris Johnson’s administration since his election victory in 2019. The government’s approach to tackling regional inequalities and ingrained disadvantage is significant not only for the crucial issues it is designed to address, but also for the electoral salience of the approach Johnson’s administration adopted. Many voters in the so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats in the north of England, including Barrow and Furness, the constituency I represented in 2019, were taken by what seemed like a fresh offer to communities that felt alienated from all main parties. The Conservatives’ attitude on issues like immigration and various social issues already felt closer to many than much of what they had been hearing from Labour and the Liberal Democrats; the promise of tangible state investment programmes targeted at their towns from a Tory government convinced them to switch their vote, many for the first time ever. 

In the early debates, both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have said they remain committed to levelling up. But there has been far less energy devoted to the issue than the question of when and whether to cut tax. It is striking that the most notable intervention has actually come from the Labour party. Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy’s interview in the Observer this week showed that she is thinking deeply about where a future Labour government could succeed in tackling regional disparities where predecessors have fallen short over many decades.

 As the then-Secretary-of-State, Michael Gove, was developing the programme, many of us wondered if Labour would disavow the entire concept of levelling up, refusing even to use the term. Instead, Nandy is astutely positioning Labour to take up the mantle as levelling up champion, should the next prime minister downgrade its importance or adopt an approach that is less likely to deliver real change. Her recent visit to Germany with frontbench colleagues suggests that a Labour government would seek to develop and refine the approach set out in the Government’s levelling up White Paper rather than junk it completely. 

In other circumstances, the Labour party signalling it was planning to invest in northern infrastructure and town centre improvement projects might be shrugged off as blindingly unsurprising. But the Conservatives’ decision to invest significant political capital in the approach makes the issue more potent. Particularly as the political offer to communities has been underpinned not only by a great deal of thinking on the levers of change but the creation in the White Paper of one of the best high-level government blueprints for state reform in modern times. 

As Chair of the Purpose Business Coalition, I have the pleasure of meeting and working with many business leaders who understand the importance of delivering positive social impact while remaining successful and profitable companies. The best delivered bold and innovative solutions to the huge challenges posed by the pandemic and are already doing the same to ensure that their staff and customers are properly supported in the face of growing cost of living pressures.

Prospective political leaders would be wise to lean in to those experiences and listen to business’s views on how best to level up the country - how to recruit people with the right skills, retain talented and experienced staff by providing clear career pathways and fair progression and act as responsible anchor institutions in their communities, supporting those furthest away from opportunity. With businesses of all sizes now building greener and more sustainable measures into their business plans, businesses are also urging the next government to keep to the UK’s commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2050, fearing that any dilution of that policy may risk the jobs and economic prosperity they are working hard to create.

Of course, candidates in a leadership contest are wise to pay heed to the particular concerns of their party’s members which may be rather different to the electorate as a whole. Just look at the contrast between what Sir Keir Starmer talked about when he was running to be Labour leader and his focus as Leader of the Opposition for a recent example of that. Thus, the tone and focus of the candidates over the next six weeks may be somewhat different to how Prime Minister Sunak or Truss focuses his or her time once they have to appeal to and govern on behalf of the whole country.

So it is entirely possible that the Conservative Government’s energetic approach to levelling up and the levers being deployed to delivering it will remain largely consistent under a new leader. Certainly, Labour’s signal this week that it is getting sharper and more confident in this vital area will have given both leadership teams a sense of the political battle ahead should they decide to change course.