4 in 5 people not confident the PM will succeed in levelling up Britain

As many as 80% of people do not feel confident that Prime Minister Boris Johnson will succeed in levelling up the UK, according to a new report by HOPE not Hate Charitable Trust.

The charity, which works to challenge hate and build hope for communities, found that 59% of Brits do not believe that levelling up will succeed and a further 21% are not sure it will.

It also found that nearly two thirds of Conservative voters are not confident that the government will deliver its levelling up agenda.

The report, titled Building Back resilient: Strengthening Communities Through the Covid-19 Recovery, also revealed public concerns that the pandemic has exposed inequality in society, with more than half of people feeling less hopeful for the future as a result of the pandemic and the majority concerned about inequality in society.

The study also revealed a range of social issues in British society, from almost half of Brits fearing either they or a family member will lose their job in the next year, to the majority of people worried about racism and poverty in the county.

 As part of the research, the charity looked at areas across the country where risks of community tensions are far right activity were likely to be increased by the economic impacts of the pandemic.

The report identified 52 local communities who are likely to be affected by social divisions as a result of the pandemic, with 16 areas considered high risk, including Blackpool, Liverpool and Leicester.

Rosie Carter, head of policy at HOPE not Hate Charitable Trust, said: ‘The post-pandemic landscape poses enormous challenges for ensuring hope over hate. The economic impact of the pandemic will be palpable, and many communities across the country are rightly worried about what the future will hold. But an additional risk that our research has identified is the fact that without a renewed focus on establishing social cohesion, ‘levelling up’ will not succeed.

‘To truly succeed in ‘levelling up’ and to fill the public with confidence in the government’s ability to create meaningful change, we need look beyond definitions of ‘levelling up’ which relate purely to economic infrastructure. We need the government to ‘build back resilient’ instead, by investing in integration and by supporting community groups, which strengthen community resilience but have been lost to years of austerity. If this is not addressed, any attempts to ‘level up’ will sadly fail.’

In response to the report, 25 leaders from 20 of the 52 local authorities identified as ‘at risk’ of social division and far right sentiment have signed an open letter to Michael Gove, outlining the ways in which central government can support local councils to ‘build back resilient’.

Photo by Mark mc neill