Wrongly assume a town lacks aspiration (8)
I believe the answer is:
arrogate
'wrongly assume' is the definition.
'arrogate' can be an answer for 'assume' (synonyms). I am not sure about the 'wrongly' bit.
'a town lacks aspiration' is the wordplay.
'a town' becomes 'harrogate' (I have seen 'northern town' mean 'harrogate' so perhaps 'town' could also mean 'harrogate').
'lacks' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'aspiration' becomes 'h' (speech sound from a puff of breath).
'harrogate' with 'h' taken away is 'ARROGATE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for arrogate that I've seen before include "Claim something without justification" , "Appropriate" , "Ascribe or claim as one's own" , "Assume" , "Claim for oneself without justification" .)