Public spending in the North has fallen behind the England average despite the Government’s flagship “levelling up” policy, a think tank has now said. IPPR North – a branch of the Institute for Public Policy Research – said that, despite the Government’s rhetoric, the levelling-up agenda has in many ways been “business as usual”.
Per-person public spending was higher in real terms in northern England in 2019 than the England average, according to the analysis, but by 2021, the latest year of available data, it had fallen behind.
Although public spending has increased in every region of England, the think tank said its research shows that in 2021 total public spending on the North was £16,223 per person - an increase of 17 per cent on 2019, compared with the England average of £16,309 in 2021, which was an increase of 20 per cent.
