Regional Development in the Age of Levelling Up

Simon Hart was appointed Secretary of State for Wales on 16 December 2019. He was previously Parliamentary Secretary (Minister for Implementation) at the Cabinet Office.

He was elected Conservative MP for Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire in May 2010.

Simon was born in Wolverhampton and grew up in the Cotswolds. He was educated at Radley College before attending the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.

Since being elected to Parliament, Simon has been a member of a number of committees, including:

Welsh Affairs Select Committee;

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee;

Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee;

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee

Simon has also been a member/Chair of several APPGs including Tourism in Wales, Learning outside the Classroom, Marine Energy & Tidal Lagoons, EU/US Trade, and others.

He was also formerly the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Simon worked as a Chartered Surveyor in Carmarthen and Haverfordwest and served with the Territorial Army for five years in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (part of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry).
Before being elected as an MP he was Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance.

Justine Greening is the founder and chair of the Purpose Coalition and the Purpose Goals. Justine is the former Secretary of State for Education (the first to attend a comprehensive school), Minister for Women and Equalities, Secretary of State for International Development, Secretary of State for Transport and Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Justine was born and brought up in Rotherham and was the Member of Parliament for Putney from 2005 to 2019.

On leaving Parliament Justine also set up the Social Mobility Pledge, which represents a commitment from 600 organisations, covering over 7 million people, to improving social mobility.

Andy Street was elected as the first Mayor of the West Midlands on May 4th 2017, before winning a second term on May 10th 2021. His main focuses are transport, housing, skills, and jobs, and he is currently working to a plan to get 100,000 people across his region back into work following the coronavirus pandemic.

Before becoming Mayor, Andy combined a career at John Lewis, Britain’s most successful workers’ co-operative, with a host of high-profile economic development roles that involved working with local and national government. In total he spent more than 30 years at John Lewis, rising from trainee to managing director.

Additionally, he has been Lead Non-executive Director for the Department for Communities and Local Government as well as a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.

Raised in Kirkby in a family of eight children, Steve left school at 16 to pursue a career as a bricklayer, starting out as an apprentice. In later years he went onto work for the Learning and Skills Council.

Steve began his political career when he was elected to serve as a councillor in 2002, representing Fazakerley ward on Liverpool City Council and held the ceremonial title of Lord Mayor of Liverpool through the city’s European Capital of Culture year in 2008.

In 2010, Steve was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Liverpool Walton constituency. While in Westminster, he led campaigns for justice for the Hillsborough families; in support of blacklisted workers; for compensation for those suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis; and to change the law on the use of old tyres on buses and coaches.

In 2017, Steve was elected as the first ever Liverpool City Region Mayor, representing 1.6m people across the boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral. In his first term, he helped deliver 9,000 new jobs and 5,500 apprenticeships, set out plans for an integrated London-style transport system and set a target for the region to become net zero carbon by 2040.

On 6 May 2021, Steve was re-elected to serve a second term as Mayor with an increased majority of over 132,000 – winning almost 60% of the vote across the region. On day one of his new term in office, he delivered a £150m COVID recovery fund to create jobs and support businesses as the region emerges from the pandemic.

Mayor Joanne Anderson is the Mayor of Liverpool. She was elected after serving as a councillor for two years and is Liverpool’s first female Mayor and the first black woman to be directly elected as a Mayor in the UK. Mayor Joanne has nearly three decades of experience as an equality, diversity and inclusion practitioner and is passionate about social enterprises and businesses with purpose. She set up the first black social enterprise community consultancy in Liverpool in 2000 and has also worked as a civil servant as the community engagement policy lead within the Crown Prosecution Service.Mayor Joanne is passionate about tackling climate change and it is one of her priorities as Mayor. Her triple lock approach to people, planet and equality will ensure that every decision made by the council will be measured against the city’s net-zero carbon target and provide value for local people.