Read: We need a grassroots approach to levelling up
Last week’s elections underlined two points. Firstly, contrary to what the Westminster intelligentsia think, voters do understand what “levelling up” means. They understand it’s about tangible improvements in your chances to get on in life. But secondly, behind those switched votes and the collapsed red wall is a wider national frustration at the lack of progress on social mobility despite decades of promises.
The reality is that governments of all shades have done regeneration plans, passed bills, made speeches and created large multibillion-pound pots of taxpayers’ money that they have distributed to communities in all parts of the country that have variously been termed left behind, disadvantaged or deprived. Yet for too many people, their chances, or their children’s chances to get on in life have not felt much improved, if at all.
Not enough has changed for the better in communities like the one I grew up in, Rotherham. And it’s not just in the red wall seats won by Conservatives in 2019. Whatever you call it — levelling up, social mobility or equality of opportunity — it’s a national challenge that matters to people everywhere, whether they’re in Chatham or Chesterfield. It’s delivery that counts now.
People deserve better and they have voted for better. But delivering “better” necessarily means different things to different communities. For rural communities it’s about infrastructure for opportunity, such as better bus services or better broadband, for urban communities it can be improving schools and more opportunities on the doorstep.
For our cities “better” involves housing and tackling pollution to create more sustainable communities, alongside ensuring that career opportunities are genuinely open to all and not just a closed shop for the well-connected. That’s why I have put forward 14 levelling-up goals, to break down challenges, from successful school years to closing the digital divide.