Levelling up the regions

 

Great Yarmouth (photo: John Fielding)

There's been a lot of talk about 'levelling-up' the regions. As Bono once said, 'maybe, maybe too much talk.' It was there in last year's election, and it was prominent in the recent R&D Roadmap. 

Not surprisingly, this is an issue that affects the regional research consortium that I direct: Eastern Arc. Eastern Arc is in a slightly odd position when compared to consortia in other regions: it's in the 'rich' East/South East. Therefore, it follows, there's no reason to level up our region. If anything, it should be levelled down. 

But the narrative of being a 'rich' area of the UK is misleading.