Giles Watling, MP for Clacton, has questioned Ministers from the Cabinet Office on the Levelling Up Agenda. This took place during at Cabinet Office Questions on 8th July 2021, the transcript of which is below:
Giles Watling MP:
“What steps the Government are taking to implement their levelling-up agenda."
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Rt Hon Michael Gove MP)
“Levelling up is at the heart of the Government’s covid recovery agenda, and I am in daily contact with Cabinet colleagues. Through the levelling up fund, we have already committed £4.8 billion of support for local projects that will spur regional growth and improve the lives of local people across the whole United Kingdom. Later this year we will publish a levelling up White Paper."
Giles Watling MP:
“I thank my right hon. Friend for his earlier answer. The Government’s levelling up agenda is laudable, and in Clacton some progress has been made. I am doing the best I can to inform residents in the area of what the Government are doing. There is a feeling of being left behind locally, however, so what are the Government doing to communicate more widely what they have been and will be doing for the people of Clacton and other left-behind communities? Will my right hon. Friend come back to the sunshine coast and join me to raise awareness of the Government’s important work?"
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Rt Hon Michael Gove MP)
“I absolutely will. There is nothing left behind about Clacton and Frinton and the communities that my hon. Friend so ably represents, and I look forward to visiting them. I understand that there is a fantastic local community theatre that he has played a part in championing, among many other local endeavours. Levelling up is about culture as well as connectivity. I look forward to coming to Clacton and making sure that it is firmly on the map and at the centre of our levelling up plans."