Levelling Up Advisory Council
The Levelling Up Advisory Council is an expert body that provides the government with independent research and advice to inform the design and delivery of levelling up policy.
An independent, non-statutory body, the Levelling Up Advisory Council was established by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to support delivery of the missions in the Levelling Up White Paper.
LUAC members
- Andy Haldane – Chair (CEO Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce)
- Katherine Bennett (CEO, High Value Manufacturing Catapult and Chair, Western Gateway)
- Sir Tim Besley (Professor of Economics and Political Science, London School of Economics)
- Sir Paul Collier (Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford)
- Cathy Gormley-Heenan (University Provost, Ulster University)
- Sally Mapstone (Principal, University of St Andrews)
- Dame Carolyn McCall (CEO, ITV)
- Sacha Romanovitch (CEO, Fair4all Finance)
- Hayaatun Sillem (CEO, Royal Academy of Engineering)
- David Skelton (Director, Renewal)
- Sir Nigel Wilson (Chief Executive, L&G)
- Baroness Wolf (Professor, King’s College London)
Council members have been appointed due to their expertise in policies related to levelling up.
Role and workplan
The Levelling Up Advisory Council provides candid, expert advice to inform, support and challenge ministers in driving forward the levelling up agenda and strengthening government’s approach to place-based policy and delivery. The Council will also engage more widely and publish research and thinking to inform the public debate and provide thought leadership to the agenda.
The Council has been given a wide-ranging remit, with freedom to advise across the ‘six capitals’ building blocks, the 12 missions and the systems reforms set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. As planned in the White Paper, the Council has established sub-groups and workstreams to look in more detail at a number of issues, drawing on wider external expertise. These are as set out below and will be regularly updated:
- the role of private sector capital in levelling up and strategies for encouraging more institutional investment – particularly to explore options for unlocking capital for SMEs (financial capital, Living Standards mission)
- local communities and social infrastructure – the role of neighbourhood policies and strategies (social capital, Pride in Place mission)
- regional adoption and diffusion infrastructure – exploring how to improve the uptake of productivity-enhancing technologies and management practices by businesses (physical and intangible capital, R&D and Living Standards missions)
- how to ensure London’s complex economic geography and socio-economic spectrum can further benefit from levelling up, in the context of broader thinking about levelling up implementation in different places in the UK (cross-cutting)
- Subsequently, as set out in the Delivering for Rural England report, the Council has also committed to working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to consider how they can offer insight into the design and delivery of levelling up in rural areas.
Other areas that the Council is in the initial stage of exploring include:
- skills and education, including apprenticeships (human capital, Skills and Education missions)
- devolution and local institutions (institutional capital, Local Leadership mission)
- the government’s approach to Investment Zones (cross-cutting)
The Council are also establishing a research programme to provide high quality research and analysis on spatial disparities and how to solve them. This work will be used by LUAC members to inform expert advice to ministers. More widely, it will also act as thought leadership, stimulating debate and driving greater understanding of levelling up policy amongst the public, local authorities, think tanks and the private sector.
Blog
Levelling Up Advisory Council blog
London workstream