Levelling Up Whitepaper: A Welcome Sight – But It Must Deliver

The government’s long-awaited levelling up whitepaper has been unveiled in full at long last. The document outlines the government’s commitments to rebalancing the UK’s services and economies, segmented into 12 key mission statements.

A number of these mission statements focus on improving infrastructure and huge regeneration projects, which will need to be led by local authorities and public sector bodies. This means that construction professionals and our expertise will be the key to taking these schemes beyond promises and into reality.

Managing director Jason Stapley said: “The whitepaper puts great emphasis on restoring local pride, detailing how the government will support 20 towns and city centres with the undertaking of ambitious regeneration projects. It’s a proven fact that positive environments and delivering the infrastructure communities need will elevate an area or region in terms of jobs, productivity and economic boost.

“Such large-scale ambition for regeneration is met with the detail of dozens of local authorities set to be supported by the High Streets Task Force to transform town centres for built environment specialists, our support of public sector bodies for the delivery of such schemes will be key – and ensuring the gold standard of procurement will make sure that true value can be delivered to communities in a way that creates maximum positive impact, while streamlining processes and budgets.

“Equally, there is a focus on levelling up infrastructure and transport connections. With net zero carbon targets also set in place by government, it is these large-scale projects that provide huge opportunity for decarbonisation, along with an approach to refurbishment and retrofit to make sure existing building stock also minimises impact on our environment.

“Our frameworks are placed to support with all of these aims, with the ability to track all-important KPIs around a scheme as required, such as social return on investment, carbon reduction and local impact. We are set to go live with our civils and infrastructure framework in the coming weeks, which has been designed with these kinds of schemes in mind – so we look forward to working with clients on their projects that will work towards the levelling up agenda.”

Gerard Toplass, executive chairman of our parent organisation The 55 Group, added: “The levelling up whitepaper has been long-awaited by us all, and it’s great to see it has finally been published in full. While generally speaking, the 12 missions outlined by the government cover pretty much every aspect of daily life, we’re especially pleased to see a number of aims that align with our values.

“Our businesses operate nationally but are headquartered in central Hull, which is a city that understands the value that comes from investment – something that we have supported by investing in the transformation of 55 Whitefriargate to bring it back into use.

“We are really encouraged by the approach to devolved administrations, decentralising the power from Whitehall and putting it in the hands of people in the areas it is needed. It’s really pleasing that our region is one of the first areas to be able to open negotiations on this topic and we look forward to seeing how this develops in time.”

More Pagabo News