Boris Johnson has urged businesses in the North to look to the future, but stopped short of making any fresh commitments to the region.
The Prime Minister was speaking at the Great Northern Conference after a week in which the Government has been heavily criticised for its attitude to areas in the North going into tighter coronavirus lockdowns.
He acknowledged the strain of those restrictions and paid tribute to businesses in the North that had helped with the coronavirus response over the last few months.
But he said it was important to look to the future and repeated his Government’s ‘levelling up’ mantra for the North.
But despite an earlier call from South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis for the Government to commit more funding and powers to the North, Mr Johnson’s speech went over existing policies, such as its skills guarantee, spending on transport infrastructure and the Towns Fund.
Mr Johnson said: “While I do not for one minute underestimate the challenges and difficulties that lie ahead or the heartache felt by many families and businesses, I can tell you that this Government is going to be with you every step of the way.
“We’re expanding our unprecedented economic support and extending the Job Support Scheme. We’re providing cash grants for businesses that have been required to close and we’re helping to protect jobs and livelihoods with more than £5bn in Government loans offered to businesses in the North West, more than £1.4bn in the North and £3.3bn in Yorkshire and Humber, alongside support for the self-employed.
“I have to be honest with you: this winter is not going to be easy. But I’m certain the people of Northern England will confront this crisis with the fortitude and selflessness we’ve seen throughout.”
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He added: “Even now as we’re still up to our thighs in the mud of the trenches, grappling with this virus, my message is that it cannot be enough simply to get through the crisis. We must build back better and stronger and faster.
“That means our work to level up and unleash the talent and potential of the North by investing in education, skills and infrastructure is now more urgent than ever.”
Mr Johnson’s speech came shortly after Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled billions of pounds of extra help for firms and workers hit by coronavirus restrictions, many of them in the North.
The move to make the payments retrospective has been widely seen as aimed at heading off criticism from areas of the North which have been under restrictions for months.
Earlier in the conference, South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis had called for the Government to show a greater commitment to the North, saying that Ministers had to “make ‘levelling up’ more than just a slogan”.