Levelling Up: a missed opportunity to reframe the role of investment in physical capital

The Levelling Up White Paper (LUWP) published on 2 February 2022 makes the case for investment in six capitals (human, financial, social, physical, intangible and institutional), which it argues underpin economic and social development (HM Government, 2022). These capitals are inter-related: for example, financial capital is required for investment in other capitals. There are also capitals which are not included, for example natural or environmental capital, although the LUWP argues that these are picked up by other policies (HM Treasury, 2021; Dasgupta, 2021). This absence is surprising, especially considering the attention they were given in a publication on which the LUWP draws to develop its 'capitals' approach (Coyle et al., 2019). As the base upon which all other economic activity can proceed, our attention here is specifically with the role of physical capital in levelling up and its treatment by the White Paper. This paper focuses on one capital – physical capital – and, whatever the fate of levelling up as a policy agenda, why it is an important part of understanding and addressing regional inequality in the UK.