Levelling Up

This is the text of my speech in the debate in the House of Lords on Levelling Up (Second Reading) on Tuesday 17 January 2023. I was the fifth speaker out of 69, so the text needs to be contextualised. There was a five minute speech limit.

My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble and right reverend Lord, who has already stolen some of what I was going to say—great minds and all of that, maybe.

When I first heard the phrase “levelling up”, I thought, “Here we go again— another slogan in search of substance”. Yet what we have heard today so far is that there is a great deal of potential substance to this Bill. I applaud the motivation and ambition behind it, and the attempt in the 12 missions to have a holistic approach rather than simply to pick off bits of our society.

But…