‘Levelling up’ will be a huge challenge for Brum

More than 100,000 need secure well-paid jobs – think tank

BIRMINGHAM will be the hardest city to “level up” due to the damage caused to the economy by Covid-19.

That was the finding of a major new study which warns it is not just the North that requires support and investment.

Boris Johnson’s government is set to focus on his plan to “level up” the poorer parts of the country, if the Covid pandemic begins to wind down later this year as hoped. That includes investing billions on new infrastructure projects such as transport schemes, and creating more jobs in the regions outside London.

Attention has already begun to focus on plans to help the North. The Treasury is to open a second headquarters in the North-east, while the HS2 high speed rail line is to be integrated into a new High Speed North network.

But the city most in need of support is Birmingham, according to think tank the Centre for Cities.

In a new report, it warned more than 100,000 people in Birmingham now need to find secure, well-paid jobs, compared to 43,000 last March.

This means the city’s claimant count rate now needs to decrease by 6.7 percentage points to bring Birmingham in line with the pre Covid19

national average.

Centre for Cities chief executive Andrew Carter said: “Covid-19 has made the Government’s pledge to level up Birmingham much harder.

“It was promised on the assumption that places in the South would remain prosperous but Covid-19 has shaken this assumption.

“Levelling up Birmingham and stopping the South’s levelling down will not be cheap and will require more than short-term handouts. Government support and investment for new businesses in emerging industries will be essential, as will spending on further education to train people to do the good-quality jobs created.”

The report warns that Birmingham had a major unemployment problem even before the pandemic.

Of the 200,000 people needing to find jobs across the UK back in March last year, almost 80,000 lived in just four places: Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle.

The Centre for Cities called on the Government to set out a plan to help towns and cities most in need of support, including by boosting Universal Credit; continuing furlough schemes until restrictions are lifted; providing free training to everyone who has lost their job, and providing everyone with a £100 voucher to spend on the high street.