11: A Question of Scale: Refocussing Policy Towards Tackling Neighbourhood Level Inequality

With policy still under development, including through the work of the new Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, the shape of the new Labour government’s long-term approach to mission-led economic and social regeneration is still emerging. A key challenge will be to address gaps in the previous government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda. Whilst the Levelling-Up White Paper set itself the challenge of ‘unleashing opportunity, prosperity and pride’ at all levels – including within, and not just between regions (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 2021) – many of its accompanying initiatives were notable in their failure to adequately target resources at the places that needed it most. In practice, when not focussed on big ticket infrastructure projects, Levelling Up investment often focussed on the regeneration of city and town centres, with less of a focus on peripheral communities often suffering from the highest levels of economic and social deprivation.