What do Michael Gove and Andy Haldane really mean by ‘Levelling Up’?

Levelling up is central to the Government’s policy agenda. But it has become an umbrella term for everything and anything – which while part of its success electorally, raises challenges in terms of tangible policy.

To address this, last week the Government announced that Michael Gove is to be appointed as Secretary of State for Levelling Up and that former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane will head up a task force for the next six months to look at this area. The good news is that much analysis has already been carried out. In a presentation at Policy Exchange in June, for example, Haldane outlined how to make levelling up a success.

Building on work from the Government’s previous Industrial Strategy Council, Haldane’s message was that spatial differences between regions in terms of income and productivity are large and getting larger. Thus, there was the need for ‘a new regional eco-system’ covering infrastructure, innovation, skills, finance, social – in terms of places being attractive to live – and governance, citing a need to devolve more power locally.