For levelling up to move beyond slogan and into delivery, it has to start with a clear understanding of place.
That was one of the strongest messages from LRG’s UKREiiF panel session, Levelling Up the North: Promise, Progress or Political Fantasy? The discussion explored what levelling up means in practice, where progress has been made, where delivery continues to stall and what northern towns and cities need next.
Moving Beyond a One-Size-Fits-All Model
A key point raised during the discussion was that growth cannot be delivered through a one-size-fits-all model. Northern cities do not need to become replicas of London, Manchester, Liverpool or each other. Instead, they need to understand what they already do well, build around those strengths and make sure the benefits of growth reach the communities around them.
Understanding Local Strengths
For Leeds, that means recognising the strength of its services-based economy, its growing reputation in fintech and medtech, and the role of its universities in creating a deep skills base. The city has six higher education institutions and a student population that provides a strong foundation for employers, investors and emerging sectors.
This matters because investment decisions are rarely based on place branding alone. Investors want to understand the economic story of a location. They want to know where the talent is, which sectors are growing, what infrastructure is in place and how local leadership is supporting long-term growth.
Different Places, Different Approaches
In that context, levelling up is not about asking every place to compete on the same terms. It is about identifying the specific conditions that allow different places to succeed.
For some cities, that may mean strengthening existing commercial clusters. For others, it may mean unlocking brownfield regeneration, improving transport links, growing skills provision, or creating stronger connections between housing, employment and infrastructure. For towns, the answer may look different again. A strategy that works for a large city centre will not automatically work for a smaller town with a different economic base, different connectivity and different community needs.
That distinction is important. If levelling up is treated as a broad national ambition without recognising local context, there is a risk that policy becomes too generic to support meaningful delivery. The same interventions cannot simply be applied everywhere and expected to produce the same outcomes.
Ensuring Growth is Shared
Place-based growth requires more than identifying strengths. It also requires a focus on how growth is shared.
The panel discussion highlighted that growth needs to reach across the whole city, not just the most commercially active areas. If investment is concentrated in a small number of locations without improving access to jobs, skills, housing and opportunity more widely, then the benefits of regeneration risk becoming too narrow.
The Role of the Built Environment
This is where the built environment has an important role to play. Planning, development, regeneration and infrastructure all help shape whether growth is felt in practice. New homes, employment space, transport improvements and public realm investment can support wider economic growth, but only when they are aligned with a clear understanding of what a place needs and where its opportunities lie.
Turning Potential into Delivery
For the North, this is particularly important. Many northern towns and cities already have strong assets: major universities, growing business sectors, cultural institutions, active development pipelines and a track record of regeneration. The challenge is not a lack of potential. The challenge is turning that potential into long-term, visible and inclusive growth.
That requires confidence from both the public and private sectors. It requires local authorities, developers, investors, businesses and communities to work from a shared understanding of what each place is trying to achieve. It also requires consistency, because growth strategies cannot be rewritten with every political cycle if they are expected to influence long-term investment decisions.
From Ambition to Delivery
The most successful places are often those with a clear story and the ability to deliver against it. They know what they are good at. They understand where growth can come from. They are realistic about the barriers that need to be removed. Crucially, they can show investors and communities how development connects to a wider economic purpose.
That is where levelling up becomes more than a phrase. It becomes a practical question about how places grow, who benefits from that growth and what needs to happen to turn ambition into delivery.
A Stronger Version of Each Place
For northern cities, the opportunity is significant. But progress depends on recognising that each place has its own strengths, challenges and role to play in the wider regional economy.
Levelling up the North will not be achieved by asking every city or town to follow the same blueprint. It will depend on helping each place become the strongest version of itself.
All of our UKREiiF panel sessions are now available on demand.
