Is Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ promise achievable?

Until business prospects and confidence improve, and the economy has entered a sustainable recovery, the UK will have difficulty levelling up its regions, writes Sean O’Grady

Try as he might, the prime minister may find levelling up a challenge (Getty)

Levelling up is one of the most familiar of the government’s snappy slogans, and although most people sort of know what they think it means, nowhere is it precisely defined. In the 2019 Conservative manifesto, for example (which seems now a relic from a lost age, but remains the programme for the Johnson administration), there are four mentions, along these lines: “Boris Johnson has set out an agenda for levelling up every part of the UK – not just investing in our great towns and cities, as well as rural and coastal areas, but giving them far more control over how that investment is made. In the 21st century, we need to get away from the idea that ‘Whitehall knows best’ and that all growth must inevitably start from London.”

Thus far, there seem to be four main planks of the policy:

• The UK community renewal fund (£220m);
• The levelling up fund (£4bn);
• The community ownership fund (£150m);
• The UK shared prosperity fund (possibly £2bn per year).