One of the key challenges of our time is making sure everyone, everywhere, has the opportunity to flourish. While the levelling up agenda plays out at a national level, it is easy to forget that at a local level, public libraries are operating as levelling up machines.

We all know libraries provide books for people who cannot afford to buy everything they would like to read and offer free access to IT for people who have none. But libraries are now playing a crucial role in supporting communities during the cost of living crisis and should be seen as a vital tool within the levelling up agenda.