Whole town thinking: what Levelling up means for local leadership

Levelling up seeks to make a better, fairer country for us all by taking “…the radical steps needed to make us more prosperous…by tackling the regional and local inequalities that unfairly hold back communities and to encourage private sector investment right across the UK”. (Levelling up White Paper, 2022)

The Towns Fund is a key tool in delivering this agenda and Town Deal Boards have played an essential role in realising that change. 

The Levelling up agenda offers a raft of opportunities for towns. The Towns Fund established the composition of Town Deal Boards, involving participation and contribution from a broader representation of a Town’s businesses and residents. This approach is not constrained to the Towns Fund – it could be taken by any local or combined authority looking to diversify leadership of their place.

Horizon Scanning

Town Deal Boards comprise private sector leaders, elected councillors, the local MP, and other key partners who then work closely with the local council and accountable body. The governance structure draws on a range of perspectives and skills in ‘place’, allowing for a deep and broad understanding of local issues and opportunities.

The board can bring insights into how national issues such as the cost-of-living crisis are impacting local communities and can see opportunities to address local and national issues through project delivery. This ‘horizon scanning’ includes looking at opportunities for projects to work together to deliver, for example, skills and training, or joint solutions to carbon reduction. It is essential that town boards maintain a strong strategic oversight of the outcomes and the opportunities to level-up their communities.

Leveraging Networks

Members of the Town Deal Board are based locally and bring a rich network of contacts. The Board can leverage these relationships to develop long-term commitments to delivering Towns Fund projects as well as identifying wider Levelling Up opportunities.  Developing long-term relationships can be challenging and requires proactive, strategic thinking about how to engage with different communities and asking challenging questions such as, “have we been focused on the influential voices, more than those who will be impacted by our plans?”.

Reflections

As the Towns Fund continues into project delivery, Town Deal Boards can, and should, celebrate and promote the successes they have helped drive.  It is an opportunity to reflect on their role and reposition themselves as the ‘strategic advisor’ to the local accountable body and delivery team. A ‘whole town’ approach considers the role of Towns Fund projects in meeting local needs alongside other funding and investment opportunities, with an eye to how these needs and opportunities evolve in the future.  By adopting a ‘whole town thinking’ approach, Town Deal Boards can drive the consideration of a range of factors beyond tangible economic factors such as social value, sustainability, and benefits of unique value to their towns. This will ensure delivery realises the vision they set out in the Town Investment Plans, enabling them to develop and lead a network that operates over the long term to identify and deliver the broader Levelling up opportunities.

Many places are engaging in the Levelling up agenda to make the ‘radical steps’ set out in the Levelling Up White Paper. The lessons learnt from the Town Deal Boards and the opportunities for ‘whole town’ thinking are equally relevant and hopefully beneficial to these places too.