Meet our experts
John Godfrey
Director of Levelling Up
Group Communications
We’ve been tracking the government’s progress in levelling up the UK since 2021 through our Rebuilding Britain Index (RBI). On a quarterly basis, we combine a survey of 20,000 people with quantitative data to assess how well the country is “building back better” post pandemic. We track progress against 52 measures, including: Health and Social Care, Education, Housing, Jobs & Economic Prosperity, Environment, Energy, Transport and Digital.
This month, our seventh Rebuilding Britain Index reinforces the need for local investment across the UK, to ensure funding is allocated where it is most needed: as we’ve seen through our work investing £30 billion in regional economies around the UK.
Set against the recently launched Investment zones initiative in England, it is encouraging that the Government is looking to combine policy with an approach that addresses some of the barriers that often delay development where it is most needed. We believe it is vital that we adopt a holistic and inclusive approach to investment – which caters to the needs of the local communities we are trying to invigorate.
Our data shows that taking a targeted and local-led approach to investment is how these Investment Zones will thrive, requiring devolved and empowered local decision-making.
Our analysis reveals:
Looking across our data, housing is the measure with the greatest gap between the top performing Investment Zone and the worst performing – a gap of 35 points. We also see a gap of 30-points on the Education measure, 26-points on Jobs & Economic Prosperity and 25-points on Digital.
Explore our interactive map to see how your local area is performing. For example, it’s interesting to note that London is one of the lowest-performing areas for housing, but scores well across other metrics, demonstrating how nuanced ‘levelling up’ is across the UK.