The North East and other regions are falling behind London in a key measure of regional economies, the country鈥檚 leading investment group has said.
Investment group Legal and General (L&G) has released its eighth Rebuilding Britain Index report, which includes scores for the various regions and nations of the 海角视频 on a range of measures. In the latest version of the Index, the North East has the joint highest score outside London, and is ranked highly on measures including education, digital, and energy and the environment.
But the region鈥檚 is ranked lowest in the country on jobs and economic prosperity, with the North East鈥檚 score in this area considerably lower than almost all other parts of the country.
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L&G - which is led by North East-born chief executive Sir Nigel Wilson - has invested around 拢250m in the North East in recent years, mostly in the Newcastle Helix and Riverside Sunderland developments. The report highlights L&G鈥檚 backing of new office blocks near City Hall in Sunderland as an example of its ability to help create jobs and improve cities around the 海角视频.
The report says: 鈥淭his, the eighth report in the Rebuilding Britain Index series, sometimes makes for grim reading. Our findings are based on survey responses from 20,000 海角视频 households and a range of 海角视频-wide quantitative secondary measures.
鈥淭hese findings reveal that, outside of improvements to unemployment rates, very little has changed across jobs and economic prosperity compared to previous quarters. While this makes the Spring Budget focus on growth a welcome one, such growth across the regions can only be achieved with holistic local-led investment in other areas like housing and health - with the former notably absent from Budget announcements.
鈥淚t remains our view that, while the public purse will be a vital component in addressing these inequalities, far more needs to be done to put the weight of private capital to work in support of those ambitions. Legal & General have already invested over 拢30bn in towns and cities across the 海角视频 as part of our approach to inclusive capitalism 鈥 which takes a place-based approach to where and how we invest. These investments are having a demonstrable and positive impact on the communities in which we invest.鈥
The L&G report said that 鈥渆fforts to level up the 海角视频 have, thus far, failed to have a material impact鈥 and added that 鈥渋nequalities across the 海角视频 have widened鈥. In an interview with the FT, Sir Nigel - who announced earlier this year that he intends to retire - said that efforts to 鈥榣evel up鈥 the regions of the 海角视频 were not currently working.
The Index also found that 95% of working households in the 海角视频 have taken a real-terms pay cut over past 12 months. Lower income households have been more severely affected, with 99% of households with income under 拢20,000 having taken a real-terms cut. Meanwhile, around 83% of those with an income of more than 拢100,000 were better off over the past year.
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