Levelling Up the UK Economy: The Need for Transformative Change [Hardcover]

This book contributes to emerging debates about Levelling Up the UK Economy, considering these alongside the nature of, and trends in, both the political economy and spatial disparities. Drawing on a complex systems framing, the book pulls together a range of evidence to provide insights about the agenda from macro, meso and micro levels of analyses, including utilising qualitative data from a small scoping study with Directors of Regeneration across several left behind places and 25 residents of left behind Redcar & Cleveland in Teesside. 

The book outlines phases in capitalisms development, particularly the shift from post-war capitalism to a post-industrial and neoliberal society and the implications for spatial inequalities. The 2022 Levelling Up White Paper is analysed alongside a focus on the role of local government relative to the agenda. The book offers an empirical case study of left behind Redcar & Cleveland, exposing deindustrialisation, insecure employment, crime, anti-social behaviour and sentiments on a North South divide and Levelling Up. We suggest that only a transformative change in the political economy, including significant and sustained investment at different spatial levels, is likely to achieve the ambition to Level Up.

Luke Telford is a Lecturer in Criminal Justice & Social Policy at the University of York, UK. He is a multidisciplinary academic who has published on political economy, politics, working-class culture, labour markets and the COVID-19 pandemic. Luke is the author/co-author of three other books including English Nationalism and its Ghost Towns,l)