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.
Presidential Roundtable: defining the outcomes for 'levelling up'
Content type: Policy
Last updated: February 2021
You may also be interested in
- Type
- Infrastructure blog
How policy can unlock the potential of nature-positive infrastructure
Governments play an essential role in how we plan and deliver infrastructure, writes Dr Kerry Bobbins.
- Type
- Infrastructure blog
HS2's real lesson - was the estimate honest, or just affordable?
The gap between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ took eight years to close, writes Dr Alexander Budzier, Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and CEO at Oxford Global Projects.
- Type
- News
Industry leaders call for new UK PM to ‘re-commit’ to existing infrastructure plans
In an open letter signed by 28 built environment and industry bodies, including the ICE, the sector warned that “now is not the time to go back to square one”.