Ministers have been urged to turbo-charge their ‘levelling up’ agenda after latest figures show the North of England economically slipping further behind the rest of the country.

Latest Office for National Statistics figures on ‘understanding towns’ find that in the North East 44% of towns are in the ‘high deprivation residential group’ of towns that combine low job density and high residential income deprivation. In contrast, the South West, South East and East of England regions have fewer than 10% of towns in this high deprivation residential group.