Levelling Up!

🆙 A very important speech by the PM: levelling up isn’t just about cash injections (although I’m *hugely* grateful for Barrow’s £25million Town Deal), but about creating opportunity, raising living standards, and restoring pride in our communities.

📈 We have some exciting projects in the pipeline locally centred around this agenda, from Barrow's university campus, to the Earnse Bay hub, local government reform, improvements at Grizebeck, and cycling and walking infrastructure bids up and down Furness.

🍀 But real levelling up is harder to do and will take time. I'm currently doing work with the Northern Research Group of MPs on this very topic. Improving health outcomes, increasing skills, and focussing on poverty reduction are some of the real measures that we'll have to consider to properly judge whether we are on the journey to actually levelling up communities like ours.

📜 Later this year the Levelling Up White Paper will be published - I'm looking forward to seeing this ambition published. Do send me your thoughts on what levelling up should look like, in Furness and beyond: simon.fell.mp@parliament.uk