Counties and Levelling Up

The government is expected to publish its Levelling Up White Paper in the next week or so. Michael Gove now heads a department with Levelling Up in its title and avowed purpose. Widely seen originally as focused on post-industrial towns, chiefly in the north of England, levelling up has both taken on more substance and has been extended to shire counties. 

This was made very clear from the Prime Minister’s speech in July, which launched the concept of ‘county deals’. At KCC we have had a number of discussions with government about what such a deal might entail,though we are not one of the half dozen or so counties in talks over a county deal to be announced along with the White Paper.

I was invited by the website Conservative Home to set out some perspectives on counties and levelling up. In my article, published this morning, I set out a view that, above all, county deals would make sense if they helped build a much longer-term relationship between counties as strategic authorities with government.

You can find the article here