What the Basque Country tells us about 'levelling up' | Aston Angle

Feb 16, 2022

4 min

What the Basque Country tells us about using local governance to level up

By Dr Caroline Gray

Lecturer in Politics and International Relations

School of Social Science and Humanities

January 2022

In a recent interview on his vision of ‘levelling up’, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, cited the Basque Country as one example of where ‘things have been done well’. The Basque Country, an industrial region of northern Spain with a population of just over two million, is widely admired for having undergone a remarkable, industry-focused economic transformation since it was hit by the decline of heavy industry in the 1980s. It is now one of the leading regions in Europe not only in terms of GDP per capita, but also in having a low percentage of population at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Within Spain itself, critics usually attribute this to the way the Basque fiscal autonomy model works, enabling the region to keep more of its own wealth to itself than other similarly prosperous regions in Spain – a form of internal ‘levelling up’ at the expense of other regions. This, however, is not the only contributing factor to the Basque Country’s economic transformation. Effective governance has also played a key role.

What takeaways from the Basque experience might be relevant to levelling up in the UK and the devolution framework needed to facilitate it? Through my research on the Basque governance systems, I’ve discovered that some of the most valuable lessons relate to how multi-level governance works within the Basque region itself and how that contributes to economic and social transformation. Devolution does not stop with the powers devolved to regional governments or authorities; the relationship between different stakeholders and layers of governance within a region or locality is equally important.

If the UK government wants to learn from what the Basque Country has done well, it should consider the following:

1. Devolution beyond metropolitan areas needs to be flexible and adaptable to place-based specifics

In his July 2021 Levelling Up speech, Boris Johnson announced that levelling up would involve extending devolution beyond cities with new deals for the counties. The government must stick to the commitment it made then to shape new devolution deals with local input, avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches.

The Basque Country provides valuable evidence for why it’s beneficial to shape governance approaches to the economic geography of an area. As one of Spain’s 17 regions called ‘autonomous communities’, the Basque Country is, in turn, divided into provinces (Araba-Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) and municipalities. Counties, which don’t have an administrative body, but which do house county development agencies, make up an additional level between the provinces and municipalities. The economic activity of two of the provinces (Araba-Álava and Bizkaia) is typical of metropolitan areas in that it is centred heavily on their capital cities (Vitoria and Bilbao, respectively), where the provincial councils are based. However, in the third, Gipuzkoa, economic activity is more distributed across different hubs in the province. As a result, in Gipuzkoa, the county development agencies, created in the late 1980s, have acquired a particularly important role, as interviewees from the Basque Institute of Competitiveness explained to me. The counties map particularly well onto the different industrial areas in the province, thanks to the fact that they were designed with the bottom-up input of municipal leaders working together with the provincial council. The county development agencies have, in turn, become a key channel via which the provincial council in Gipuzkoa can reach SMEs more easily, as they are closer to the firms. Such local networks are particularly important in non-metropolitan areas where economic activity can be more dispersed.

This is why the UK government must make sure any new devolution framework it designs is flexible enough to allow for local input and adaptations to place-based considerations.

2. Bottom-up, collaborative dynamics are essential to the design and implementation of placed-based strategies

Basque economic development has undoubtedly benefitted from the fact that the regional government draws upon input from different levels of administration and a range of other public and private stakeholders in the region when designing its industrial policies. Experiments in collaborative governance have become increasingly innovative over the years, not only at regional but also provincial and local level, designed to reach beyond the largest firms and to engage wider society. The county development agencies in Gipuzkoa, for example, used to provide services to SMEs in an essentially one-way direction – for example, advising them on how to apply policy – but have since evolved more into facilitators of networks for cooperation and mutual learning among public and private actors at county level. This not only facilitates more efficient implementation of regional policies, but also channels local feedback upwards into the policy-making process, adding value. Collaboration among different tiers of governance and different areas, rather than competition, has been the goal of such approaches.

Therefore, the UK government needs to reconsider the increasingly competitive dimension of current devolution arrangements. Having areas compete against one another for centrally controlled, often short-term pots of money doesn’t facilitate the formation of robust, collaborative partnerships that could ultimately add value and increase efficiency.

Finally, institutional stability is important. From the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) to the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), which are now under review, there has been frequent chopping and changing in the institutions and policies meant to tackle the UK’s place-based inequalities in recent decades. The Basque Country shows what can be achieved with a more stable, longer-term institutional and policy framework and vision. If it is to have a meaningful impact in tackling inequalities, the Levelling Up White Paper must provide the basis for a longer-term devolution framework that goes well beyond the current government term, with a clear allocation of resources and responsibility.

Connect with:

Dr Caroline Gray

Lecturer in Politics and Spanish

Dr Gray specialises in the politics of Spain and wider Europe, focusing on territorial politics and party systems.

Basque CountryCataloniaSpanish CultureSpanish PoliticsEuropean Politics

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Jun 18, 2026

4 min

The world is burning useful waste, and cleaner alternatives are needed

When we talk about clean air, the conversation usually turns to traffic: exhaust fumes, congestion, school runs and the air people breathe on busy streets. That focus is understandable because road transport remains one of the most visible sources of poor air quality in everyday life. But Clean Air Day should also draw attention to a less visible question: why are useful materials still being burned as waste? Clean air is about more than traffic Around the world, huge quantities of leftover straw are still treated as waste to be cleared quickly, with rice straw one of the clearest examples. More than 700 million tonnes of rice straw are produced globally every year, and around 80% is burned. That contributes directly to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, while also destroying material that could have value. 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During community engagement activities, participants consistently highlighted cleaner air as an important benefit, not only for environmental reasons but also because of concerns about the health impacts of smoke and the financial burden of illness. For many households, avoiding respiratory problems and expensive hospital bills was seen as just as important as generating additional income from agricultural residues. That matters because cleaner air is linked to more than one policy area. Transport is important, but so are farming, energy and waste. Research can help identify what works, where the trade-offs are, and how promising ideas can move beyond the lab. It can also support industry, policymakers and local partners to develop alternatives that are practical rather than theoretical. For policymakers, the lesson is that air quality cannot be improved by focusing only on the most visible sources of pollution. 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May 15, 2026

3 min

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An international clinical trial involving Aston University researchers has challenged long held assumptions about how brittle bone disease is treated in adults, after finding that substantially increasing bone density did not reduce the risk of fractures. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), examined whether a two stage treatment using the bone building drug teriparatide followed by the bone preserving drug zoledronic acid could reduce fractures in adults with osteogenesis imperfecta, often referred to as brittle bone disease, a rare genetic condition that causes bones to break easily throughout life. Researchers followed 349 adults treated at 27 specialist centres across the UK and Europe. While the treatment led to clear increases in bone density in the spine and hip, fracture rates were no lower than among patients receiving standard care, suggesting that bone quality may matter more than bone density alone in preventing fractures in people with the condition. The findings underline a key distinction between brittle bone disease and more common bone conditions such as osteoporosis, where increasing bone density is known to reduce fracture risk. In osteogenesis imperfecta, the study suggests that bones can become denser without becoming less likely to break, indicating that the underlying quality and structure of bone tissue may play a greater role in fracture risk than density alone. Dr Zaki Hassan Smith, an endocrinologist at Aston Medical School who contributed to the research, said: “This study shows that in osteogenesis imperfecta, simply increasing bone density doesn’t necessarily translate into fewer fractures. That’s important, because it tells us that the disease is more complex than what we see on a scan. The findings help shift the focus towards understanding bone quality and how bones behave in real life, which is essential if we are to develop more effective treatments that genuinely reduce harm for patients.” Osteogenesis imperfecta is a genetic condition that affects collagen, leaving bones fragile and prone to fracture throughout life. There is currently no licensed treatment specifically approved to prevent fractures in adults with the condition, and patients often experience repeated fractures, chronic pain and long term disability. The trial tested a sequential treatment strategy commonly used in osteoporosis, where a bone building drug is followed by a treatment designed to preserve gains in bone strength. Although this approach successfully increased bone density in people with osteogenesis imperfecta, it did not reduce fracture rates, suggesting that treatment strategies effective in osteoporosis may not directly translate to rare bone diseases. Researchers did observe improvements in some quality of life measures among participants receiving the treatment, including reduced pain interference and improved mobility. However, fracture prevention remained unchanged, reinforcing the need for new approaches that target the fundamental properties of bone in osteogenesis imperfecta rather than density alone. The study was led by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Aston University contributed clinical and academic expertise through Aston Medical School as part of the large international collaboration, which involved specialist centres across the UK and Europe. The study was led by the University of Edinburgh, with Aston University contributing clinical and academic expertise as part of a wider international collaboration involving multiple specialist centres across the UK and Europe. The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Researchers say the findings provide important guidance for future research, helping to steer efforts towards treatments that focus on bone quality, strength and resilience in everyday life. They also highlight the value of large scale clinical trials in rare diseases, where learning what does not reduce harm is an essential step towards better care. The paper, Teriparatide Plus Zoledronic Acid for Osteogenesis Imperfecta, is published in JAMA. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2026.6889

May 12, 2026

3 min

Why disaster recovery in the Himalayas needs a rethink

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