The government has announced its plans for spreading opportunity more equally across Britain by improving services such as education, broadband and transport by 2030.
Announcing the government’s 'Levelling Up White Paper', Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said too many communities have been "overlooked and undervalued" and left in "a cycle of decline" for decades.
“Levelling Up and this White Paper is about ending this historic injustice and calling time on the postcode lottery," Gove said.
He announced 12 new national levelling up missions to drive change in towns and cities across the UK, "so that where you live will no longer determine how far you can go”.
Gove said the strategy would "shift both money and power into the hands of working people".
Prime Minister Boris Johnson put "levelling up" at the heart of the Conservatives' election-winning manifesto in 2019.
The plans include the creation of more regional mayors, such as existing posts like Labour's Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, or the Conservatives' Andy Street in the West Midlands and Ben Houchen in Tees Valley, with the expectation that these mayors would be able to target spending more effectively.
The missions also include a refocusing of education spending on disadvantaged parts of the country and plans to eliminate illiteracy and innumeracy; bringing the rest of the country's public transport closer to London standards, and providing access to 5G broadband for the majority of households.
The government is promising £100m in new funding for "innovation accelerators" to boost research and development in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and Glasgow City-Region.
An existing rule that 80% of government funding for housing is spent on London and the south-east of England will be scrapped and spending allocated to the north of England and the Midlands.
“From day one, the defining mission of this government has been to level up this country, to break the link between geography and destiny so that no matter where you live you have access to the same opportunities," said Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He said the White Paper “is a vision for the future that will see public spending on R&D increased in every part of the country; transport connectivity improving; faster broadband in every community; life expectancies rising; violent crime falling; schools improving; and private sector investment being unleashed".
Tracy Brabin, Labour mayor of West Yorkshire, told the BBC that the government strategy offered "lots of ambition, lots of hope, but unless you actually have the money and the resources, you are going to be struggling".
Labour has set out its own five-point plan for levelling up, including better broadband for towns and villages, action to tackle anti-social behaviour in city centres, and more affordable housing.
Labour shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said: "Ministers have had two-and-a-half years to get this right and all we've been given is more slogans and strategies, with few new ideas."