The Government must do more to entice foreign investors into the North amid "baked in" economic bias towards London, a new report says.
The report launched today by the Commons Public Accounts Committee criticises work by the Department for Business & Trade to attract high value foreign investments, saying its focus is too weighted towards the capital. The cross party group of MPs say that in 2021/22, 39% of projects supported by DBT were in London and the South East and 16,000 of the jobs forecast to be created by those projects were in London – more than across the North East, North West, Scotland, Yorkshire and Humber combined.
The Government has been accused of "flying blind" as the committee said there is a lack of understanding about its impact on investment levels and too much focus on short-term deals without follow-up to see whether projects developed what was initially promised. And the report also said a new Department target that emphasises supporting investments that lead to more than 35,000 new jobs outside of London and the South East does not differentiate between UK nations and regions.
