Northern Tory MPs urge Liz Truss not to abandon levelling up

John Stevenson says levelling up requires both short and long-term action

Conservative MPs in the north of England have called on the prime minister not to abandon her predecessor's levelling-up agenda.

Members of the influential Northern Research Group (NRG) said Liz Truss needed to take "urgent action".

The policy was promised in the party's 2019 election manifesto.

Carlisle Tory MP John Stevenson, who was elected as chairman of the NRG earlier this month, urged Ms Truss to "double down on levelling up".

He said: "That requires both short-term action in the form of tax cuts and investment in public services and, in the long term, finding ways to boost the productivity of towns and cities that have struggled for decades to retain talent and attract private investment."

The NRG was founded by a number of Conservatives who took so-called red wall seats from Labour at the 2019 General Election and want greater investment for northern areas.

Kevin Hollinrake has called for business rates reform

Thirsk and Malton Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, who chairs the Property Research Group, has also called for plans to continue to spread opportunity more equally across the UK.

"The economic crisis we are facing risks further increasing the north-south divide," he said.

"Urgent action is needed to help encourage private sector investment into our northern towns and cities."

Freezing business rates

The calls come ahead of the Conservative Party conference, which starts in Birmingham at the weekend.

New research by a group of retail businesses and unions highlights the significance to voters of regenerating their areas.

The report argues in favour of freezing and reforming business rates to rejuvenate high streets.

Will Tanner, director of the centre-right Onward think tank, warned that if the Conservatives abandoned levelling up "they will not only be letting down millions of voters who believed that promise, they will be forfeiting their chances of a majority".

In her first speech as prime minister earlier this month Ms Truss pledged to build hospitals, schools, road and boost broadband across the country but did not use the phrase "levelling up".

Dehenna Davison, Levelling Up minister and Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland, said levelling up remained a "top priority" for the government.

She said negotiations for Investment Zones had been announced which would "put rocket boosters on our levelling-up agenda" while there had been "significant progress made to unwind historic underinvestment in the North".

She said: "We are working with local communities to deliver the changes they want to see, all the while focusing on spreading opportunities to the very communities that need it the most."