Levelling Up is a flagship policy of the current UK Government. It is a powerful phrase, but one which is open to interpretation. This event will help improve the public debate in relation to this important policy agenda.

Coming shortly after the Chancellor's Spending Review and Autumn Budget announcement, this event assembles a group of distinguished social scientists, politicians and practitioners for a timely exploration of the principles and practices that must be foremost if ‘levelling up’ is to be as effective as we would all like it to be.

The event will feature short and sharp ten-minute inputs from our distinguished speakers plus time for wider discussion, and it will cover a wide range of key aspects of levelling up.

Speakers at Levelling up: Principles and Practice

Chaired by Will Hutton, President of the Academy of Social Sciences

• Neil O'Brien, MP - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities

• Lord Kerslake, Chair of the UK2070 Commission

• Juergen Maier, Vice-Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

• Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor

• Laila Page, Head of Sustainable Banking, Performance and Frameworks, NatWest

• Stuart Martin, CEO, Satellite Applications Catapult

• Professor Adrian Pabst, Deputy Director for Social and Political Economy, National Institute of Economic and Social Research

• Professor Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology at University of York and co-founder of The Equality Trust

Other speakers to be confirmed shortly.