Levelling up is the right agenda to correct the UK’s gaping regionalities inequalities and what the public still expect to happen. But despite the rhetoric, the promise of levelling up has not yet delivered. Policy activity carried out in its name has been top down, opaque, insufficient, and disconnected from the communities that it purports to support. The result has been citizens who can see no improvement in their lives or communities, and a country that is no less unequal than when the promise of levelling up was first made over four years ago. Levelling up is due an upgrade.

IPPR North and IPPR have carried out major research, travelling the length and breadth of the country – from Hastings to Redcar - to get to the heart of how people really feel about levelling up, and will set out a blueprint – with citizens at its heart - to upgrade the agenda to ensure that power, wealth and opportunity are shared fairly between and within our regions.

At this event, we will launch the findings of this major research, including a ready-to-go blueprint for progressive levelling up, at a high-profile event in the north of England. This could be a pivotal moment – a turning point - in the life of the levelling up agenda.

We will be joined by:

Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Councillor Abi Brown, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Inzamam Rashid, Correspondent, Sky News
Zoë Billingham, Director, IPPR North

This event is taking place on Thursday 21 September, from 12.30pm - 2.00pm, followed by an optional hour-long tour of the venue.

Parallel lives: Regionally rebalancing wealth, power and opportunity