Levelling up” was at the heart of Boris Johnson’s manifesto for the 2019 general election, promising a sea change in the way the UK was run.
After decades in which areas around the country had complained that investment, jobs and power were too concentrated in London and the southeast, Mr Johnson promised to revive “left behind” towns and rural areas across Britain with government spending, jobs and the devolution of decision-making powers to local people.
But it was not long before the vaulting ambitions expressed during the election campaign ran into reality, in the shape of a Treasury tightening its belt in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
