RT. HON JAKE BERRY MP Member of Parliament for Rossendale and Darwen HOUSE OF COMMONS Prime Minister Rt Hon. Boris Johnson MP 10 Downing Street London SWIA (AA 26 October 2020 Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to you as Northern MPs regarding the Government's approach to supporting ‘communities in the North, North Wales and Scottish Borders where the Covid 19 vieus is most prevalent, and the levelling-up agenda as outlined in your economic speech in Dudley on 30 June 2020. As you said then, and as is trae today, we must use this critical moment to address the problems we have collectively failed to tackle for decades. ‘The North has seen a level of disruption unparalleled with other parts of the country. The virus has ‘exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it ‘threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the North and South still further. Northern paris of our country Were among the first t0 be significantly adversely affected by the Covid outbreak, and now many communities have been put back under severe restrictions. ‘The package of support measures that have been announced by the Chancellor is significant. We welcome the measures already in place such as the furloughing scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Lean (CBILs}, and the deferral of VAT payments, and we weleome the substantial package of financial support provided to local authorities that have entered into the highest level of lockdown restrictions in recent days. ‘We do however stare concems that the cost of Covid could be paid for by the downgrading of the levelling-up agenda, and northern constituencies like ours will be left behind. We believe this would ‘threaten to undermine the Governments hard-won mandate in December, ata time when the political and economic case for the levelling-up agenda we have been elected to deliver, has never been more ‘essential ‘That is why we are today calling for your support to create a pathway down the tiering system and to ‘reate a Northern Economic Recovery Plan to help our constituents build back better out of this Covid crisis, - First, we believe the Government can foster wider support by setting out a clear roadmap down the tiering system and out of lockdown. Disproportionately, restrictions are affecting people across the ‘North far greater than they are in the South. We believe that providing greater clarity about how local areas move down the tiering system and reopen economies would be of benefit to both people and ‘businesses in our region. People want to see that measures will come to an end, and to feel reassured ‘that the opportunities hamessed at the beginning of the year will be provided to them once again by this Government,