‘Levelling Up? That’s never going to happen’: perceptions on Levelling Up in a ‘Red Wall’ locality

Abstract

Emerging as the flagship policy of the Conservative Government in 2019, the Levelling Up agenda identified the need to ameliorate the United Kingdom’s (UK) spatial inequalities with a particular focus on so-called left behind places. However, there is a dearth of qualitative research in these locales that explores what Levelling Up means to residents and how they believe it can be a success. Drawing upon 25 interviews with residents of left behind Redcar & Cleveland–a unitary authority that was central to the 2019 collapse of the Red Wall–this article explores their nuanced sentiments on the Levelling Up agenda. After presenting a brief history of Redcar & Cleveland, the study’s qualitative methodology is presented. The findings sections are then structured into three themes: (a) the ambiguity of Levelling Up, (b) Redcar & Cleveland’s freeport, and (c) cynicism of Levelling Up. It explicates how locals believe improved public infrastructure and well-remunerated employment, particularly through the unitary authority’s recently opened freeport, should be central to Levelling Up the area. Next, the paper exposes the cynicism towards the agenda. It closes by suggesting failures to Level Up will serve to entrench peoples’ discontent in places like Redcar & Cleveland.