The Levelling Up White Paper sets out how bold new policy interventions will improve opportunity and boost livelihoods across the country as we recover from the pandemic. Ensuring that economic opportunity is spread equally across the United Kingdom will require a tailored approach to places, driven by an understanding of local issues, engagement with local partners and implementation of local solutions.

Central to the Levelling Up White Paper are the 12 national missions to be achieved by 2030. They set clear and ambitious medium-term goals to drive bold thinking, innovation and collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities leads the levelling up agenda across government. Some of the missions, like those on housing and local leadership, will be driven directly by the policies and legislation that we develop and the programmes that DLUHC and its agencies run. In other cases, we support, challenge and work with other departments to make progress towards the missions. Through all of this activity, we continue to focus on building and investing in close working relationships with local partners and across government.

Working directly with places is key to the successful delivery of Levelling Up and the implementation of the White Paper. Our ambition is to put local ideas and innovations at the heart of government and support local leaders to tackle their local challenges.

This new approach to place must mean that real people, with a profound understanding of their communities, support the shaping of policy and delivery in their areas. Central government will therefore seek to improve the coordination of its collective efforts at the local level, its understanding of local issues and opportunities, and the scale and seniority of its local resourcing.