Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has given a speech at the Convention of the North.

He began by talking about what needs to change, including stunted economic development and the over-financialisation of economies and criticised partnering with authoritarian regimes.

Gove said: “And of course bureaucratic reporting requirements that have sometimes elevated abstract goals that please pressure groups ahead of concrete gains that deliver for the poorest.

“We have also seen supply chains that lack resilience and in some countries education systems that lack rigor.

“And linking them all of these phenomena has been a preference among some policy-makers for models that appeal to theorists and think tanks rather than action rooted in real people and real places.”

Gove highlighted a lack of suitably qualified workers, limited supply of financial capital, and poor connectivity in terms of physical transport links and digital infrastructure.

He also mentioned the North-South Divide, which means that: “Wealth, influence, innovation, high productivity firms, high wage jobs and high quality schools have been disproportionately concentrated in the south-east quarter of the country.”

On what the government will do to address these problems, Gove said: “the moral imperative of reducing inflation is heart of everything we do.”

He also mentioned reforms to financial services to better support industry and manufacturing, securing investment from abroad and addressing economic inactivity.

Other action areas include tackling deprivation, investing in improved links between and within communities, and directing research and development to under-funded regions.