What does 'levelling up' mean?

We're expecting to hear more about the government's plans for levelling up later today (2nd February)

Michael Gove will give more details on the white paper later today
Author: Hannah NorburyPublished 2nd Feb 2022

The government is set to publish its Levelling Up White paper today.

It will focus on challenges including improving living standards, growing the private sector and increasing and spreading opportunity.

What does levelling up mean?

We've been asking people in Leeds if they know what levelling up means, they said:

"Levelling up? Level up? I 'ant got a clue.

"It means if someone's got something better than you, and they want to come to your level, you've got to balance it out.

"I've never heard of it before, no I don't know what it means, unfortunately.

"It means rebalancing society, economically."

In the 2019 general election, the Conservative party manifesto said its focus would be "levelling up every part of the UK".

The Manifesto said Boris Johnson would 'invest in towns, cities and rural and coastal areas, using apprenticeships to balance out skills, giving areas more control over investment and creating new freeports.'

'Levelling up' means to bring the left behind parts of the UK to the same level as everywhere else.

"This governments talking the talk on levelling up, but in fact its delivering less than previous governments."

Henri Murison's from the Northern Powerhouse Project- which is made up of business leaders from across the North.

He said:

"They need to address inequality, but they also need to address the fundamental economic divides in our country, because at the moment, you're worse off if you're a poor kid in the north and what we need to do is make the opportunities for poor kids the same, wherever they live in this country.

"As a young person growing up today in West Yorkshire, if you're poor, you're going to learn less than other people in your class, but you're gonna earn even less than you would if you were growing up in London or the South-East and what I want is to close that disadvantage divide.

"This governments talking the talk on levelling up, but in fact its delivering less than previous governments."

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