Medway is being levelled down

Plus more councillors call it quits, a very short Medway Council meeting, and why we are never getting anything built ever again

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This week is a slightly shorter edition than usual as it’s been a long and tiring week for me, and to be honest, not a huge amount has happened this week. It’s just how it goes sometimes I guess. I’m working on some pretty interesting longer form pieces in the background but nothing I could have ready for this week sadly. Anyway, thanks for reading this thing!

Medway is being levelled down

We hear an awful lot about levelling up these days. The phrase has been kicked around as the key platform of the current government. But what does it mean? And are the places that really need to be levelled up moving in the right direction?

An incredible bit of data reporting this week from Bloomberg sets out a stark view for the country: Only 10% of the constituencies that were ranked behind London across the range of metrics have improved their position in the past three years, while the vast majority have fallen even further behind.

It probably won’t come as any surprise that Medway is in the latter of those categories. But just how much things have moved in the wrong direction in less than three years sets out just how badly the levelling up agenda is failing its aims.