direct to your inboxGovernment’s ‘levelling up’ policy lacks any plan after a year that has seen divides widen further due to Covid-19, a report has warned.The annual ‘State of the North’ report points to ingrained gaps in wages, productivity and health between the region and the English average that will make recovery to an acceptable level that much harder.But on top of that Covid itself has had ‘an uneven impact across England’, says the research by think-tank IPPR, pointing to the extra restrictions that have hit places such as Greater Manchester since the first lockdown.“It has created new regional inequalities, and deepened old ones,” it finds.At the same time it warns the pandemic ‘has powerfully demonstrated the weaknesses and cost’.
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