The former head of the civil service Bob Kerslake has called on the government to put fixing regional equality at the forefront of its covid-19 recovery plan.

Kerslake, who now chairs the UK2070 commission on regional inequality in the UK as well as housing association Peabody, said rebalancing the divide between richer and poorer parts of the country was essential to ensuring a strong recovery from the pandemic.

He said: “To many, talking about spatial inequalities in the UK may not seem a top priority at the moment, but I believe it’s highly relevant to how we as a country recover from the effects of this terrible virus.”

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