The unevenness in the local economic impact of COVID-19 presents a serious challenge to the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda

Donald Houston illustrates how places with the weakest economies prior to the lockdown have been hardest hit during the pandemic, with seaside towns, rural coastal areas, and the north and southwest of England being particularly affected. Affluent and high-tech or high-productivity areas, and to some extent industrial areas, are least affected.