Centre for London fully supports the objective of levelling up and believes it should be a long-term national mission to reduce geographical inequalities across the country. However, we are concerned that the agenda could in fact lead, either by accident or intent, to London being levelled down.
On Wednesday 29th June, we hosted a hybrid event that provided an opportunity to discuss the capital’s levelling up challenges, as well as what the next steps are for the city.
Missed the discussion? Catch up here:
Claire Harding, our Research Director, presented the Phase 1 of our Levelling Up research; examined how London should build a more persuasive argument on the need to level up within London and to recognise the importance of the capital to the UK’s economy.
Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, delivered the opening remarks, highlighting the work being undertaken by the Policy institute’s Work/Place project and its synergies with some of the key points from Centre for London’s report findings.
A conversation with RSA Chief Executive, Andrew Haldane, followed. We discussed:
- What practical change we have seen as a result of the levelling up agenda.
- What successful levelling up would look like.
- Whether London’s levelling up needs have been forgotten.
- What London organisations should be saying about levelling up to their counterparts elsewhere in the UK.
Speakers:
Chair: Dr Linda Yueh is a Fellow in Economics, St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and Adjunct Professor of Economics, London Business School; as well as Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Presentation: Claire Harding is the Research Director at Centre for London. She joined the Centre in 2020 and is responsible for our research programme.
Speakers: Bobby Duffy is the Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute. He has worked across most public policy areas in his career of 30 years in policy research and evaluation, including being seconded to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit.
Andrew Haldane is the Chief Executive of RSA (the Royal Society of Arts). He was formerly Chief Economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee.
This event is part of Centre for London’s year long project on levelling up and is free to attend thanks to the support from our generous sponsors. We’ve put together key statistics which showcase the levelling up challenges across the capital.