Neoliberalism, left behind Middlesbrough and levelling up: an intractable policy task?

Proposing to narrow spatial inequalities in one of the most unbalanced economies in the developed world, the Levelling Up agenda was a key driving force behind the Conservative Party obtaining their largest majority since 1987 at the 2019 general election. The agenda, though, has been beset by various problems and has all but fallen by the political wayside. One key problem was that it lacked a political economic understanding of left behind places, especially Northern post-industrial locales that were lagging particularly due to deindustrialisation under neoliberalism. Many of these post-industrial places have endured persistent deprivation and entrenched social problems for around four decades. This paper is structured as follows. It begins by exploring UK neoliberalism, before briefly discussing the emergence of left behind places and the Levelling Up agenda. Focussing on the experiences of left behind Middlesbrough, in Teesside, UK, the article explores the area’s rise in light of the iron, steel and petrochemicals industries and its decline particularly in the neoliberal era. As the town’s demise is intimately connected to neoliberalism, the paper closes by discussing why it is highly unlikely left behind places such as Middlesbrough will be revived under the UK’s current form of capitalism.