Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has told staff at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities that it is to drop ‘levelling up’ from its name.

The comments by Rayner were made during an all-staff meeting at the department’s HQ in Marsham Street in London.

Taking a swipe at the Tories and their levelling up agenda, Rayner said: “A Government of public service means fixing the fundamentals, rebuilding the foundations and getting the basics right to deliver for the British people.

“No more gimmicks, no more slogans, but the hard yards of governing in the national interest. The work of my department is central to our mission-driven government.

“From fixing the foundation of an affordable home, to handing power back to communities with skin in the game and rebuilding local government – this will be the department of service.

“We will go back to basics. No more government by gimmick. No more stunts and spin. Our department should do what it says on the tin.

Return

“That’s why, I am delighted to announce that the department’s name will return to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.”

But Rayner did acknowledge that the UK is too ‘unequal’ and that Labour was on a mission to tackle that, saying that on housing it would “deliver change for young couples priced out owning their own home, for leaseholders left at the mercy of eye-watering charges, and for those trapped in buildings still wrapped in dangerous cladding.

“We will deliver change for families facing eviction through no fault of their own, for renters living in damp, cold and mouldy homes, for people living on the streets with nowhere to call home.”

Angela’s department took up the levelling up name in September 2021 at the behest of Michael Gove, who said at the time that it was the ‘defining mission of the Government’.