In an ongoing period of political change, it is imperative that addressing regional inequalities stays firmly on the political agenda. The challenge of supporting people to thrive within the towns they come from is not going away. There is an opportunity for the government to ensure levelling up remains at the heart of its ambitions and to prioritise the needs and interests of people in towns.

The levelling up agenda has included an ambition to help people to ‘stay local, go far’. In this report, the authors investigate the desirability and feasibility of this ambition. To do so, they spoke to people that have left towns and those that have decided to stay. These groups are crucial to making ‘stay local, go far’ a reality, but have so far been missing from the conversation.

The research shows that if ‘stay local, go far’ primarily seeks to stop people leaving towns, the authors believe it will, for a multitude of reasons, fail. This report instead calls on the government to re-conceptualise ‘stay local, go far’ to focus on helping those that stay. Helping stayers means empowering communities, local government and businesses to take control of their town.