PM’S level-up pledge ‘four times harder’ after pandemic

BORIS JOHNSON’S mission to level up the UK has been made four times harder by the pandemic, new research reveals.

Official data shows the number of people that the Government will have to get off benefits and into work in the North and Midlands to achieve parity with the South East has quadrupled in just 10 months.

The number claiming unemployment or other related benefits outside the South East has risen from 170,000 to 634,000 since the start of the pandemic, according to the research by the think tank Centre for Cities.

It means those 634,000 in the North and Midlands will have to be found jobs just to bring them in line with the national average of 3 per cent claiming the benefits and close the gap with the South East.

Birmingham is the city facing the biggest levelling-up challenge, followed by Hull, Blackpool, Bradford and Liverpool. Birmingham has seen its benefit claimant rate rise from 5.8 per cent to nearly 10 per cent since March – three times the national average.

That means it will need to reduce the proportion on unemployment and benefits by 6.7 per cent to level up. Hull and Blackpool will need to slash their rate by 6.5 per cent, Bradford by 6.4 per cent and Liverpool by 5.8 per cent.

The data shows the South East has been hit as hard, if not harder in some parts of the region, by the pandemic, although it started from a lower base in terms of the proportion claiming unemployment benefits.

The think tank identified London, Crawley and Slough as among the prosperous places of concern due to Covid-19’s potential long-term impact.

Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, said: “Covid-19 has made the Government’s pledge to level up the North and Midlands much harder. Levelling up the North and Midlands and stopping the South’s levelling down will not be cheap and will require more than short-term handouts.”