Parallel lives: Regionally rebalancing wealth, power and opportunity

Our economy and democracy are not yet designed to help all places thrive.

Reducing regional inequality, or levelling up, remains imperative for both improving the fairness of society and the efficiency of our economy. If the UK was more regionally equal, life chances would be more fairly distributed across the country and the full economic potential of our regions would be realised. There is the potential to build an economy where wealth, power and opportunity are shared more fairly. But to do this, we need to rethink the regional distribution of economic and democratic power.

Our research highlights three key areas where citizens want to see change across the country: in the distribution of wealth, power, and opportunity. This report seeks to represent the views of the citizens we spoke to on what would make the most difference in their area of England, and we propose policy ideas to reenergise and refocus the agenda in the runup to the next general election.

NOTE: "The content of this report has also been enriched by the contribution of external contributors including Arianna Giovannini, Christine Berry, Andy Pike, Steven Griggs, Jack Newman, Edmond Smith, Craig Berry, Jasmine Birmingham, Kat Deyes, Paul O’Brien, Jane Wills, Janice Morphet, Jess Studdert, Nick Plumb and Ailbhe McNabola."