What do we want? More Mayors!
When do we want them? Now!

This isn’t a direct quote, more an impression taken from an address by our new leader at DLUHC. It’s quite easy to paraphrase the address, as when Michael Gove was asked in a fringe session at conservative party conference if he wanted to see more mayors, he just said ‘Yes’.

The new Secretary of State at the new Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities was fast off the blocks and on the move in his first few days in the job. He went straight to the site of the largest new freeport, dropped into a biosciences lab, and ended at a towns funded area where homes, transport and jobs were on the agenda. 

Shuffling and Spending
The Prime Minister has a new, longer catch phrase: build back better post pandemic.  He used it as he wielded the axe in last weeks’ Cabinet reshuffle, which saw Robert Jenrick out and Michael Gove in at the (newly named) Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.. There’s a new Minister for Levelling Up as ‘rising star’ Kemi Badenoch MP takes on the job and retains her Equalities brief.