Levelling up in the North and North-East England: Complex and fragmented governance and the new National Health Service and local government partnerships

In the North East there have been encouraging signs of new partnerships spurred on by the COVID-19 crisis in bringing both local government and the National Health Service closer together and producing local responses to the pandemic. However, there is a frustration that central government is too far removed from understanding both regional and local needs. The Levelling Up Funds and the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund all seem too vague and uncoordinated. This chapter argues that it is not surprising that in this fragmented governance region, health inequalities are rising and worsening, even as the pandemic eases. People are still asking what levelling up means and how it will make a real difference in the region in the period to 2030.