Levelling Up

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a ‘cast-iron commitment’ to prioritise levelling up in his first PMQs. In the face of an economic situation requiring ‘eye-wateringly difficult decisions’, what hope do the public have that living standards, high streets, and public services will prosper in the coming years? The public are pessimistic about delivery but the appetite for action is unlikely to lessen.

Research conducted by Ipsos in May, shows widespread geographical inequalities in how the public feels when it comes to government spending, with residents in Wales, Northern Ireland, the North of England, and also in rural and post-industrial areas feeling most left behind.

Ipsos has devised a Levelling Up Index to measure public perceptions and regional differences against each of the 12 missions within the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper.

The Conservative Party Conference took place in October, and we recontacted our video diary participants to ask them what they thought of the Government’s commentary around Levelling up.

At the end of July, we asked the UK general public whether the levelling up agenda will have a significant impact on their local area and only 14% agreed. With such a low baseline surely the only direction for levelling up is, err, up?

The latest Ipsos research, polls and trends on what it means to level up the country