LEVELLING UP: WHAT ENGLAND THINKS - SUZANNE HALL, WILL JENNINGS, LAWRENCE MCKAY,

We have seen the appointment of ministers and secretaries of state for handling it, the introduction of white papers on regional inequality, and a multitude of reports about what policies might work best — from the construction of new housing and transport infrastructure to the opening of new museums and the devolution of power from Westminster. [...] This was the first survey of its kind on levelling up and regional inequality, and the first to assess the impact of changes to how England is governed, including the effect of the introduction of Metro Mayors. [...] The football and the cricket and the ice hockey and the Panthers and it’s Torvill and Dean isn’t it?’ Nottingham, Male, Group 2 The focus groups reveal some nuance in how people think about the different factors that determine levels of local pride. [...] Yet reducing levels of crime is the priority of around half of those in the ‘hard-pressed communities’ and ‘multi-cultural living’ neighbourhoods — the two groups with the lowest levels of local pride. [...] The specific groups we asked about were: the government in Westminster, local councillors, the mayors for the city/region (for the 7,770 respondents living in areas represented by a Mayor — just over a third of the sample), the local MP, and the Conservative and Labour parties.