Michael Gove vows to enact ‘real change’ on a local level to fulfil levelling up agenda – CityAM : CityAM

Michael Gove, the newly appointed Housing Secretary, attempted to finally add flesh to the bones of the levelling up agenda at Conservative Party Conference yesterday.

In his keynote speech in Manchester, Gove, the head of the freshly renamed department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities vowed to provide “real change” for downtrodden regions of the UK.

He said: “Levelling up means four things: we want to strengthen local leadership to drive real change, we will raise living standards, especially where they are lower. We will improve public services, especially where they are weaker, and we will give people the resources necessary to enhance the pride they feel in the place they live.”

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Gove heaped praise on Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen as he promised to use local leaders to help create change on a national level.

He put urban regeneration at the top of the agenda, alongside initiatives to solve the growing housing crisis with “new homes on neglected brownfield sites”.

The intervention comes after his predecessor Robert Jenrick was fired from Cabinet following attempts to build new homes in Conservative heartlands.