The levelling up ‘project' has been criticised on a number of fronts since 2019, especially with regard to funding.

The level of ambition requires far more investment – for example some £2trn went into East Germany after reunification – however, the money the Government is putting into levelling up may be higher than they have previously been given credit for. The attention has been placed mainly on the flagship levelling up fund worth £4.8bn launched in 2021, but our report, published by the Centre for Inequality and Levelling Up this week, looks at the regional distribution of a range of different funds labelled by the Government as supporting levelling up.