Birmingham Named as the City Most in Need of ‘Levelling Up’

BIRMINGHAM has been named as the city that is most in need of ‘levelling up’.

Even before the global pandemic began Birmingham had been struggling with a major unemployment issue. In March 2020 the UK had around 200,000 people who were out of work, and almost 80,000 of these lived in Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester.

Birmingham has now been labelled as city most in need of ‘levelling up’ and Centre for Cities believes that the government would need to develop a plan to help support towns in need. This support would hopefully include the continuation of furlough schemes and helping people who have lost their jobs by providing free training. Other ideas include providing high street spending vouchers and increasing Universal Credit.

Boris Johnson plans to “level up” areas in need but this is dependent on the Covid-19 pandemic decreasing throughout the year. This plan would see new transport schemes and new infrastructure projects created that would mean an investment of billions of pounds. This would also mean that new jobs would be created in these areas.

Andrew Carter, Centre for Cities Chief Executive said, “Covid-19 has made the Government’s pledge to level up Birmingham much harder. It was promised on the assumption that places in the south would remain prosperous but Covid-19 has shaken this assumption.

“Levelling up Birmingham and stopping the south’s levelling down will not be cheap and will require more than short-term handouts. Government support and investment for new businesses in emerging industries will be essential, as will spending on further education to train people to do the good-quality jobs created.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Birmingham Named as the City Most in Need of ‘Levelling Up’”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.