What is ‘levelling up’? Boris Johnson was elected Conservative leader two years ago on a promise to raise the level of income in the regions. His party’s manifesto that year included a commitment to “levelling up every part of the UK – not just investing in our great towns and cities, as well as rural and coastal areas, but giving them far more control of how that investment is made”. Two years on, however, the exact definition of Johnson’s idea of levelling up remains vague. Why is it so important? The UK’s over reliance on London as an economic force has been a challenge for successive governments since the 1930s, when the first Special Areas Act was introduced to give aid to severely depressed regions including south Wales and parts of northern England. Nearly 90 years later, there remains a gaping chasm on health, productivity and skills in Greater London compared with everywhere else. Perhaps of greater concern is the fact that most of Britain’s big cities outside London are punching well below their weight economically. What has Johnson announced so far? While there has been little in the way of flagship policies attached to the “levelling up” agenda, the government has announced two pots of funding. The biggest is the “levelling up fund”, a £4.8bn purse to support high street regeneration, local transport projects and cultural assets. The allocation of this cash has been criticised after it emerged dozens of Conservative regions had been placed in the top tier for assistance despite being relatively affluent. The second is the “towns fund”, a pot of £3.6bn that is being distributed to 101 areas across England to support initiatives such as street cleaning and turning derelict buildings into new homes. What are the next steps for the policy? Downing Street is due to publish a white paper in the autumn, drawn up by the Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, which experts hope will finally set out a number of bold policies to end what the prime minister has called the “outrage” of regional inequalities. The appointment of O’Brien, a former thinktank founder and special adviser to the pro-devolution George Osborne, has given business leaders some hope that his ambitions will be far-reaching and radical. However, the big question is whether they will be backed by the sort of money that could truly prove transformational.