‘Levelling up’ must support jobs and health, experts warn

The government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda will only be effective if it supports jobs and improvements to people’s health and wellbeing at the same time, according to a group of economists.

The economists, who are part of the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review, warn the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing economic and health inequalities between the North and South, which must both be tackled if the government is to achieve its aim of closing the gap between the two regions.

Given the threat of unemployment on a grand scale in the region, they recommend devolving more powers to allow local areas to design and trial local policies and programmes themselves.

In addition, it notes that in Greater Manchester and across the UK, more deprived areas have been affected by the virus much more than affluent areas.

And they say many people in lower paid jobs have often been unable to afford to self-isolate or work from home.

The economists also argue that building on Greater Manchester’s health and care devolution deal, the need to reform the social care system is now clear and closer integration between social care and the NHS is key to building the UK’s resilience and capacity to deal with future pandemics.

‘The big takeaway is that we need to resist the urge to promote recovery at any cost,’ said review panel member, Stephanie Flanders.

‘If the city-region is to build back better and for the long term it will need to pursue socially and environmentally sustainable growth, developing new initiatives and accelerating existing programmes, including the Greater Manchester Employment Charter and updated social value framework.

‘Out of the horror of the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers have an even greater responsibility to seize the opportunity to use new tools and to think differently about the future shape of the economy.

‘One way to start doing this would be to tie membership of Greater Manchester’s Good Employment Charter more closely to the public procurement process, so organisations receiving contracts must demonstrate their social value,’ she added.

Photo Credit – K_R_Craft (Pixabay)