For Levelling Up to work, ministers need to persuade wealthy people to give back to their hometowns

Will Tanner wrote for iNews about why levelling up must help local people to “go far and give back” to their place. He writes:

“…as well as staying local, levelling up must also be about helping people to come home. For every post-industrial town or deprived rural community that has declined in the last few decades, there are successful business leaders who left to get ahead. The Government should be encouraging them to use the skills and money they have accumulated to help transform the places they left behind.

This kind of hometown philanthropy already exists in some places. John Roberts, the Bolton-based founder of digital retailer AO.com, for example, is a long standing supporter of Bolton Lads and Girls Club – a youth club – and has donated millions to Onside Youth Zones, a charity on whose board he sits that has brought affordable, year-round access to sports and cultural facilities not only to Bolton but to Oldham, Carlisle, Blackburn and Wigan too.”

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