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By DAN O'DONOGHUE - June 27 2022
Levelling up the UK’s cities will require investment that goes “far beyond anything currently being contemplated” by the Government, a think tank has argued.
A report published today by the Resolution Foundation found that differences in income were both “significant” and “persistent”, with only traditionally poorer areas of inner London such as Hackney and Newham significantly improving their position over the last 25 years.
At its most extreme, the report found that income per person in the richest part of the country, Kensington and Chelsea, was 400% higher than income per person in poorer areas such as Hull and Blackburn .
These gaps are reinforced by differences in income from investments. In 2019 for example, residents of Camden received an average of £9,135 from investments, while those in Knowsley – one of the most deprived boroughs in the country – received an average of just £806.
Lindsay Judge, research director at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain is beset by huge economic gaps between different parts of the country, and has been for many decades.
"While progress has been made in reducing employment gaps, this has been offset by a surge in investment income among better-off families in London and the South East.
“People care about these gaps and want them closed, as does the Government via its ‘levelling up’ strategy. The key to closing these gaps is to boost the productivity of our major cities outside London, which will also lead to stronger growth overall.”
But closing those productivity gaps will be challenging and expensive.
In another report due to be released on Thursday, the Resolution Foundation will argue that current Government policies do not go far enough. Taking Manchester as an example, where productivity is 30% lower than in London, the think tank said closing that gap would require tens of billions of pounds of investment, more graduates working in the city and an extra 300,000 workers moving to Greater Manchester.
Henry Overman, Professor of economic geography at the LSE, said: “Those looking for Britain’s productivity problems can find them in our under-performing major cities. Addressing this challenge will require Britain to completely turn around its poor record on investment, to take hard-headed decisions on where this investment should be prioritised, and for cities to embrace growth.”
Tory MPs losing their Wragg with Boris Johnson
Greater Manchester MP William Wragg issued a rallying cry to Cabinet ministers last night, urging them to "do something" about Boris Johnson.
The outspoken Tory said “the sense of disappointment that there is on the backbenches towards the Cabinet is palpable because you would have expected for some of them at least to show a bit of backbone.”
He added: “Any of them with leadership aspirations might wish to consider this and do something about it.”
The Prime Minister is facing pressure from across the political divide following the double by-election defeat in Wakefield, and Tiverton and Honiton, further fuelled by the shock resignation of party chairman Oliver Dowden on Friday.
Mr Wragg's comments came amid suggestions that backbenchers were attempting to change the rules of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs in order to allow another vote of confidence in Mr Johnson within the next year.
But Mr Johnson was in a defiant mood yesterday, saying that he is “thinking actively” about fighting the next two general elections to become the longest-serving post-war leader.
The row came as CBI director-general Tony Danker warned MPs the constant rows were sapping business confidence.
In an interview with the Journal , Mr Danker warned that the UK economy was heading into a “critical quarter” and needs the Government to put its internal divisions on hold to avoid the country tipping into recession.
He said: “What you’ve got a lot of right now is boardrooms on pause. The test for Government and for all of us is that we need to ask, week by week, this question: is this good for confidence or bad for confidence? Does this move the needle on boardroom decisions to seal the deal or not."
Mr Danker was speaking a few days after inflation rose to 40-year highs and an influential survey warned that the economy appears to be “running on empty” as plummeting business confidence adds to mounting signs of a looming recession.
He said it was possible that the economic situation could improve by next year as labour shortages and supply chain issues ease.
But he added that without action to stimulate investment and growth, “the risk is that any downturn is far longer and deeper than anybody wants.”
Party B&B's turning York into 'nightmare'
A Yorkshire MP has introduced a bill to licence short-term and holiday-let accommodation in a bid to stop visitors turning “wonderful little communities in York into nightmares.”
York Central MP Rachael Maskell said she is being contacted by constituents who no longer feel safe in their homes due to an increasing number of Airbnbs, with many becoming “party houses” hired by stag and hen groups.
Ms Maskelll said there were around 2,000 Airbnbs in her constituency and that they were becoming increasingly common in the outskirts of the city and in the more rural villages.
Ms Maskell said one property in a cul-de-sac in The Groves area was being advertised for 30 people.
“It is at the end of a family residential street, and people in my community have told me that the noise goes on all night,” she said.
“People are half-clad in the streets. Women do not feel safe down some of the back alleys in the Groves, where a lot of children play. People do not feel safe in their own home anymore. I heard from one family who put their house on the market and moved out of the city, which was the only way they could escape the party houses that were increasingly in their area.”
Ms Maskell's private members’ bill would see a licence required to turn domestic properties into short-term and holiday-let accommodation, giving local authorities the power to issue fines and to remove licences.
Disruption continues as bus strike enters fourth week
Bus strikes across West Yorkshire will be entering a fourth week after talks between Arriva and the union fail.
The strike, organised by Unite Union, began on June 6 and despite talks with Arriva, the action hasn’t been called off. It has affected routes across Leeds, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Bradford and other areas within West Yorkshire.
Updating passengers, Arriva has urged the union to call of the strikes which currently have no end date.
Arriva said: “We are disappointed for all our customers to confirm that the strike will be entering a fourth week, with no date yet for services being resumed.
"We remain committed to getting our drivers back to work and buses back on the road as soon as possible. We once again ask the union to call off the action and let our people vote on the latest pay offer."
It comes amid warnings more than 60 bus routes in West Yorkshire could be scrapped or drastically reduced later this year when Government funding ends.
Thousands of children miss out on first choice school
Thousands of children across the North missed out on a place at their preferred schools this year, according to figures published by the Department of Education (DfE).
Across our region, 6,501 children applying for secondary schools and 2,296 children applying for primary places either were given a place at non-preferred school or received no offer at all.
For those applying for a secondary place, those in Liverpool were the most likely to miss out on their first choice, with only 67.6% of applications successfully getting their top pick.
The areas where children were most likely to get their first choice were Central Bedfordshire (98.2%) and Rutland (96.7%).
The DfE said children may have missed out as during the 2021 collection process, a number of local authorities said a larger than usual number of applications were submitted late, which means they were not counted in that year’s collection.
The application deadline was during the winter pandemic period, which may have affected parents getting applications in on time, and there may be other factors reducing the number of applications, for example, an increase in parents choosing to homeschool.
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Northern Stories
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Liverpool Council has “nowhere to hide” as it attempts to rectify the “embedded practice” that led to multiple contract failings. Chief executive Tony Reeves has told a meeting of the authority’s cabinet the only way for the council to turn its fortunes around was to “bring these things out into the open” as members agreed to a costly renewal of 13 contracts that had either run out or were on the brink of expiring. It was revealed last week that a series of agreements had been allowed to end or are perilously close to being void following a review of all the council’s procurement deals after the expensive energy contract debacle.
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Nearly a million women in the North have missed their latest smear test, writes Claire Miller of Reach's Data Unit . At the end of December last year, nearly a third of women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 49 (30.5%) and a quarter of those aged 50 to 64 (25.2%) were not up to date with their cervical screening. This week is Cervical Screening Awareness Week (June 20 to 26), and charities are encouraging those eligible to get their tests booked.
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Anger over levels of child poverty in Stockton has seen the Government come under fire from leaders. Stockton’s children and young people select committee has heard cases of a families living in homes where vermin could be heard crawling behind the walls and mothers being unable to afford clothing. Council leader Bob Cook poured scorn on government leaders, saying “multi-millionaires” in the government cabinet “wouldn’t see poverty”.
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Around 80,000 households across Leeds eligible for the £150 energy bill grant have yet to receive it. The government announced a one-off payment in March for every home between council tax bands A and D, to help people cope with spiralling bills. Leeds, like other councils, were able to hand out the cash relatively quickly to households who pay council tax by direct debit, but taxpayers who pay by other means have been harder to reach. Despite a social media plea urging those who haven’t had the rebate to come forward, around a quarter of people in the city entitled to the £150 still haven’t got it.
