Presidential Roundtable: defining the outcomes for 'levelling up'

This roundtable, chaired by ICE’s President Rachel Skinner, was an in-conversation session with John Penrose MP, Chair of the Conservative Policy Forum.

To discuss the question: How will we know we’ve successfully ‘levelled up’?

Background

In the Spending Review late last year, the chancellor set out what he described as the highest level of public investment in 40 years, with funding for roads, rail, broadband, flood defences and green energy, giving clear signals about the government’s priority to ‘level up’ through infrastructure.

As a key Conservative Party manifesto pledge, the prime minister’s commitment to ‘levelling up’ the UK will continue to permeate through many of the big public statements and announcements made by the government in 2021. The context for this discussion also included the English Devolution, and Local Government White Papers expected this year, alongside local and mayoral elections in England.

This event was held under the Chatham House rule and discussed the signs that the policy is starting to make a difference, and how success should ultimately be determined.