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Covid and the city
Figure The impact of Covid on urban life
Figure Figure 1: Public transport usage has fallen in larger cities in particular
Figure Figure 2: London has seen the largest drop and weakest recovery in people at their place of work
Figure Figure 3: Spending by urban residents recovered to February levels on the eve of the second national lockdown
Figure Figure 4: Many East Asian countries have continued to urbanise despite the threat of pandemics
Figure Policy support is required to help our big cities to achieve the Government’s levelling up goal
Covid and levelling up
Figure Box 1: Methodology: who is included in the claimant count?
Figure Box 2: Defining cities
Figure Before the pandemic, the UK’s north-south divide was unmistakable
Figure Figure 5: People claiming unemployment-related benefits were much more likely to live in the North and Midlands
Figure Cities made up 80 per cent of the pre-pandemic levelling-up task
Figure The economic impact of the pandemic has not followed traditional north-south patterns
Figure Figure 7: The north-south divide is no longer so clear cut
Figure In the areas needing levelling up before the pandemic, the challenge is much bigger
Figure Figure 8: Covid has made the levelling-up challenge much bigger
Figure If the end of furlough leads to unemployment, the task is even bigger
Figure Box 3: The interaction between the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the claimant count
Figure Figure 9: Without the furlough scheme the levelling-up challenge could be 10 times larger
Figure The pandemic has created new problems in otherwise strongly performing places
Figure Figure 10: Levelling up is a North and Midlands challenge while Covid has affected every place
Figure Box 4: The impact of Covid in London’s PUA
Figure Figure 11: The uneven effects of the pandemic are also visible within cities
Figure How the Covid and levelling-up challenges interact
Figure Figure 12: Even economically strong places before the pandemic have been hard hit by Covid
Figure Figure 13: In some strong economies the scale of the challenge is now similar to that of places in need of levelling up
Figure Levelling up is a decades-long challenge, Covid recovery may not be
Figure Figure 14: To truly level up, places need stronger performing exporting sectors
Figure Unlike levelling up, bouncing back from Covid is likely to be a shorter-term challenge for many places
Figure Figure 15: Covid has hit local services jobs, especially those on the high street, harder than the financial crisis
Figure Figure 16: In most places, Covid has mostly affected local services, but for some it has had a negative effect on their exporting base
Figure What does this mean for cities and large towns?
Figure Figure 17: Different places need different policy responses
Figure Figure 18: Different places need different policy responses
Figure What needs to change
City monitor
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6: To level up pre-Covid, the claimant count rate of the weaker performing parts of the UK needed to be brought in line with the national average
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