Britain’s levelling up agenda was stymied from the very start

Inherent flaws and political churn doomed Boris Johnson's signature policy - and it was hobbled through bureaucracy and high inflation

• No progress made on half of levelling-up targets
• Report card: how the Tories' pledges stack up today
• We're forgotten about here': the broken promises

Last February, the Treasury lost patience with Michael Gove.

The levelling up secretary had just given a speech in Manchester during which he announced 30m to pay for improvements to substandard housing. Officials had already blocked him from using that speech to announce a larger pot of money for local authorities, and then they decided to stop him allocating any capital spending of 30m or more without Treasury approval.