The current approach combines genuine goodwill with political expediency and short-termism, writes the former deputy leader of Nottingham City Council and former deputy chair of the East Midlands Development Agency. The UK has the unenviable attribute of having more extreme regional economic disparities than any member of the EU. Having spent 10 years following a course of austerity there is a now genuine attempt by the government to ‘level up’. Over the past four months it has announced a regional investment bank, a range of targeted capital initiatives to support deprived areas, and the freeport initiative. It is has also shown an understanding of the needs of towns and the importance of skill training, insufficiently defined in previous programmes. It has reviewed the Treasury Green Book assumptions in order to adapt them to the levelling up policy.