Levelling up ambitions must begin at home

They used to call it tackling the northsouth divide, but now the government’s phrase du jour is ‘levelling up’.

Whatever you call it, it goes far wider than a debate about the affluent south and the hard-up north.

It is not that straightforward, as we in Portsmouth know only too well, with pockets of deprivation and poverty right under our noses.

Homelessness is everpresent, and charities and food banks have their work cut out trying to help families struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living continues to rise.

Boris Johnson talks of levelling up as a desire to reduce imbalances, primarily economic, between areas and social groups in the UK.

But the new Levelling up and Regeneration Bill goes further, with ambitions to help struggling towns and cities revive dwindling urban retail centres.

A wander around any of our shopping streets can be a dispiriting experience. Empty shop units proliferate as the urban tumbleweed of litter blows through oncebustling space s.

A key plank of the governments bill, announced on Wednesday, would overhaul the planning system and introduce a high street auction system allowing councils to auction off tenancies in retail units that have been vacant for more than a year.

That may well prove popular in Portsmouth and her surrounding towns, possibly enabling former retail spaces to be converted into much-needed living spaces.

Civic officials will be poring over the fine detail of the plans to see how they might take advantage, but the organisation representing councils across the south east has criticised a 'lack of ambition' in the proposals.

It seems they fear being swamped in a mass of red tape and say councils must be empowered to do more. After all, levelling up begins at home.