Levelling up needs spending ‘on a scale not being imagined’

Levelling up just one city would cost billions of pounds and require spending “on a scale not being imagined”. A report from the Resolution Foundation, published today, has found that differences in income across the country are both “significant” and “persistent”. It added that only traditionally poorer areas of inner London such as Hackney and Newham were bucking the trend and significantly improving their position over the past 25 years. “The key to closing these gaps is to boost the productivity of our major cities outside London,” it said. Productivity, even in successful cities, is far below London and would cost enormous sums to boost. Manchester’s 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. The Times (£)