Every business has a vested interest in seeing their local area thrive

There’s a lot of talk about levelling up. Agreement even. But how do you finally turn aspiration into reality? And can business really make a difference?

Both are questions Stephanie Hyde, UK CEO of JLL, is trying to answer as the new Chair for the CBI’s Thriving Regions & Nations programme.

Faced with the rising cost of doing business, you might think now is not the time to be thinking about something as noble as economic reconstruction. Hyde strongly disagrees. “Nobody should underestimate the shocks businesses are feeling, but you can’t afford not to think long term as it will hold us back,” she says. “We could be in a very different position now if we had invested; if we’d done things differently. We have to learn the lessons from that.”

The good news is that firms are already doing many of the things that contribute to their local areas, she adds. They’re