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The latest in levelling up: a new department and taskforce

Date: 21/09/2021

Levelling up remains one of the uk’s biggest priorities and challenges. Amidst September 2021’s cabinet reshuffle, the ministry of housing, communities and local government has been rebranded by the government to become the department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

As part of these changes, the former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane has been appointed as the new head of the levelling up taskforce.

Levelling up is a topic that we at Pagabo are extremely passionate about driving forwards, so we are very pleased to see the focus on this topic from the government growing over recent months, culminating in this department rebrand.

 

 

Our chief executive, Simon Toplass, said: “It is interesting to note that the department, which has in the past been shortened to the ‘Ministry of Housing’, now has levelling up as the first part of its name, thereby signifying how important the government sees the levelling up agenda. Indeed, it has been detailed that the change was decided in order to underline the department’s ‘central mission to level up every part of the UK’.

“However, the proof will be in the pudding. It will take more than a department rebrand to truly address the topic of levelling up, address regional imbalances and create an economy that works across the whole of the UK. Construction has a big role to play in this, and everything is interlinked.

“As detailed in our recent webinar on the Construction Playbook with Built Environment Networking, adapting and adhering to the principles of the Playbook will help to transform practices and the workforce of tomorrow, which will in turn play into the levelling up agenda in bringing those opportunities to the areas that they will have the most impact.

“We eagerly anticipate the levelling up whitepaper, which is due to be published this autumn. With that, the government will lay out its plan and we can all collectively work towards achieving that common goal.

“At Pagabo, we will continue to push these efforts through our dedication to affording the public sector the best possible procurement routes for their schemes while enabling social value on the ground in local communities to create better environments for all. To date, we have enabled almost £4 billion in social value and are the only framework provider to own our own social value calculator, allowing us to accurately and seamlessly analyse the impact of schemes for our clients as part of our overall process.”

 

For more information on the construction playbook, click the links below

 

Construction Playbook 

Five Point Construciton Playbook Pledge